The Ninja, the Faunus and the Spartan
by TheRationalAnarchist
Summary: The Gauntlet is a major fighting tournament in Vytal where Huntsmen and Huntresses can prove their metal. But even in the relative safety of this event serious accidents happen. The story follows Kai a Huntsman in training as he deals with the repercussions of one such injury. Reviews and constructive criticism would be appreciated.
1. The Spartan and Memories

Sitting in class listening to an old man recite tales of past glories was very near the bottom of the list of things Kai enjoyed doing, even on a good day. But it being his final class on a Friday evening Kai was bored out of his skin. So when the bell signalling the end of class rang he was out of the room before anyone else but he didn't get very far, this was in part due to him being mowed down by a blonde boy who was sprinting down the hallway, he was obviously late for something Kai didn't get the chance to ask because before he was able to comprehend what was going on the boy had turned the corner at the end of the hallway and was gone. "Well that was weird." said Fletcher as he reached down to help Kai up.

"Tell me about it, where do you think he's going?"

"To be honest mate I really couldn't care less." replied Fletcher bluntly "But it looks like he's heading in the direction of the training hall."

Kai looked around him the rest of his team had joined Fletcher and him outside; Iris and Ashley the two female members of team AIKF were looking concerned as Fletcher pulled him off the ground.

"I'm fine." Kai reassured them.

"Really?" questioned Ashley the leader of the team.

"Yeah of course why?"

"Well for starters your shoulder is doing that weird thing again." Iris added helpfully.

Kai looked down at his left shoulder and sure enough there was his arm, dangling out of its socket.

"Not again." Kai moaned as he moved to push the limb back into the joint.

"Don't do that!" Ashley snapped loudly. She grabbed is good arm and began to drag him down the corridor towards the infirmary. Fletcher and Iris began to follow but Ashley told them that she could handle taking Kai to the infirmary and that they should enjoy their Friday evening. As she said this Kai noticed her wink at Iris who then insisted that Fletcher should come with her to the cafeteria to get some food.

After the rest of the team were out of sight Kai begin to resist against his team leader which didn't take much effort as he was a lot bigger than the black haired huntress. Ashley finally gave up and turned to face him.

"Kai, tell me what is going on with that shoulder of yours."

"It's nothing; really it's not a problem."

"It is a problem! It is a huge problem!" the huntress was getting agitated. "What if your shoulder does it again but during a fight or… or in a much more serious situation?"

"It won't be an issue." Kai insisted.

"Yes it will! I have a responsibility to make sure the team is on top fighting form and you have a responsibility to ensure you are combat ready at a moment's notice."

"Fine, what do you want me to?"

"I just want you to get someone with a medical degree to look at it and if they say its fine I'll get off your back."

"I can't do that." Kai could barely look her in the eye.

"Why?" The huntress once again looked annoyed as she thought she had made some progress.

"I really don't want to talk about it."

"Kai, please the team needs to know what's wrong. "

It was at this point that Pyrrha Nikos entered the hallway and saw the black haired huntress arguing with the tall blonde huntsman. She considered walking back the way she had come to avoid going near the pair, until she realised she knew the huntsman. So without thinking she began walking towards the pair and called his name.

Kai looked up in response to his name and when he saw the red headed Spartan walking towards him all he could think was "Great she's going to make this worse…"

Pyrrha really couldn't understand why her old friend wasn't excited to see her, as she approached the pair she saw Kai's shoulder and remembered the day that the incident occurred.

Two years previously Pyrrha had been standing opposite Kai dressed in his full ninja uniform in the final of the Gauntlet tournament, they were both very tired as they had been fighting for nearly half an hour neither of them giving any quarter. To say they were rivals would be an understatement, Pyrrha knew the Ninja well. They had been training partners, until she had started fighting in tournaments at which point they had gone their separate ways to ensure the other was unable to learn how the other fought. They just about maintained their long standing friendship but that was always hard when you were nearly always trying to hurt eachother.

It was at this point that Kai charged at her, Pyrrha changed her spear into its rifle form and took aim but just as she was about to fire the Ninja threw a small black sphere at the ground. The sphere shattered releasing a plume of black dust that enveloped the ninja. As the dust quickly cleared the Ninja was nowhere to be seen, "Well that's new," she muttered to herself. She stood there looking around wary of an attack; little did she know Kai was standing on the lighting rig at the top of the arena.

The Ninja was content that she had no clue where he was so he took his time in planning his next attack. He slowly removed three shuriken from a concealed pocket in his jacket; he began to run along the lighting rig throwing the shuriken at spaced intervals so the Spartan would not be able to determine his location. As the throwing stars hurtled towards the Spartan she turned and placed her shield between her and the sharp throwing stars.

There were three consecutive thuds as the shuriken lodged themselves into her shield, Pyrrha was pleased with herself she had sensed the attack with her Aura what she didn't realise was that the throwing stars were a distraction and that the Ninja was directly behind her. The only thing that alerted her to the presence of the Ninja was the chorus of her supporters screaming that she needed to turn around.

Kai smiled behind his hood as he drew his two swords and jumped from the rafters towards the huntress. As he descended the Spartan began to turn and she raised her spear…


	2. Trial of the Valkyrie

"Hi, can we help you?" Ashley didn't look pleased that the redheaded Spartan had interrupted her while she had been lecturing Kai. But what Kai had not expected to happen was Pyrrha to walk right up to him, grab his left arm and gently ease it back into position. Kai looked at Ashley, she was staring at the Spartan and she didn't look happy.

Kai turned to Pyrrha "Thanks,"

"Not a problem ," Pyrrha smiled at the Ninja

"What do you think you're doing?" Ashley barged passed Pyrrha and began to examine Kai's shoulder.

"I'm helping Kai out," Pyrrha looked surprised at his teammate's reaction.

"You could have made his injury worse!" the black haired girl was really getting upset now.

"Ashley its fine, Pyrrha is an old friend" Kai tried to reassure his team leader.

"It doesn't matter, unless she is a medical professional she shouldn't be doing that."

"Ashley my shoulder is sorted now; there is nothing the infirmary nurses could do now"

"Fine, but this is not over." Ashley muttered as she stormed off.

"Well that was interesting," Pyrrha said as she turned towards him.

"Sorry about her…"

"What's her problem?" Pyrrha asked turning towards Kai.

"She's trying to be a responsible team leader, but she isn't dealing with the pressure very well, thanks for sorting my shoulder out by the way."

"No problem," the Spartan smiled at him.

"So what are you doing now?"

"Well I was heading to train with my teammates,"

"Do you mind if I join you? I think I should give Ashley sometime to cool off. "

"Not at all, it would be great to have the chance to train with you again."

Kai wasn't sure what he was expecting Pyrrha team to be like but when he was introduced to the three other members of team JNPR they were definitely not what he had expected. As he and Pyrrha walked in he saw two huntsmen as they turned to great Pyrrha their eyes instantly locked on to him. Kai began to feel like he was intruding until he realised the two huntsmen looked surprised at his presence. "Hi guys… where's Nora?" queried Pyrrha. It was at that moment that the fourth and final member of the team decided to make an appearance. "Boop," Nora shouted loudly as she poked Kai in the back of head surprising everyone but the black haired Huntsman sitting across the room.

"Ooooooo who's the new person?" asked Nora excitedly as she hopped from foot to foot looking Kai up and down.

"Sorry you'll have to excuse her," the black haired Huntsman had got up and walked over to them. "I'm Ren, nice to meet you."

"Kai, nice to meet you to."

"Well since you've already met Nora, I should probably introduce you to our team leader" Pyrrha said as she moved into the centre of the training facility to meet the blonde huntsman who hadn't said a word or moved an inch since Kai had walked in. "Kai meet Juane," the scraggy blonde boy looked up at the mention of his name. At that point Kai recognised him; he was the blonde guy who had knocked him over in the hallway. As Juane greeted him he saw that the Huntsman looked nervous like he was expecting Kai to call him out on the accident.

"So how do you guys know eachother?" Ren asked raising an eyebrow as he and Nora joined the three of them in the centre of the training hall.

"Oh it's nothing like that" Pyrrha interjected as she began to blush, her sudden answer received raised eyebrows from all of her teammates.

"Pyrrha and I used to be training partners and for a period rivals at tournaments." Kai decided to pick up the conversation allowing Pyrrha to regain her composure.

"Oooooo you must be good if you were rivals with Pyrrha!" Nora exclaimed. The Valkyrie drew her hammer, "Come on show me what you've got!" The Valkyrie began to drag Kai to the sparring area. He looked back at the rest of the team all of whom seemed eager to see what he could do.

"Umm shouldn't he have his weapon for this?" Jaune asked.

"Don't worry he has it," Pyrrha replied.

As he and Nora took their places in the ring Kai did up the heavy black jacket he wore and pulled the deep hood over his head until it obscured the top half of his face. Nora who seemed exceptionally excited by the whole event made the first move. Using the momentum gained from firing the massive hammer in her hands she charged at him. To the surprise of every member of team JNPR Kai seemed to dissolve into black dust which dissipated and then reformed directly behind the Valkyrie. As Kai reappeared Nora swung at him again and much to her increasing annoyance he once again dissolved and reappeared behind her.

"How is he doing that?" Juane whispered to Pyrrha.

"I don't know he would never tell me," the Spartan replied.

After allowing the Valkyrie to swing at him a few more times Kai went on the offensive, throwing a black sphere at the ground releasing a plume of black Dust, allowing the black Dust to settle on his jacket which upon making contact with the material the Dust reacted and began to diffract the light in the room around him essentially making him invisible. As the black Dust cleared he grinned as Nora looked around confused by the disappearance of her competitor.

As the other members of team JNPR watched Nora's knees appeared to buckle pitching her backwards and causing her to fall to the ground. Instantly Kai reappeared above her reached down and poked Nora on the forehead "Boop."


	3. Prove yourself

"It was crazy he just disappeared!" Pyrrha smiled as Nora enthusiastically recounted her sparring match with Kai the previous evening to the members of team RWBY. Ruby seemed truly enthralled by the tale and Yang seemed to be contemplating something very deeply. Weiss and Blake on the other hand seemed sceptical as the Valkyrie was notorious for embellishing her stories.

"I don't think he could have disappeared, it seems a little farfetched." Weiss interrupted the Valkyrie. "Are you sure he wasn't just moving really fast."

"Nora's telling the truth, he just vanished into thin air." Ren replied flatly much to the appreciation of the Valkyrie.

At Ren's confirmation of Nora's story Blake and Weiss became a more interested in Nora's tale.

Coincidently her story was slightly embellished, to hear Nora tell it Kai had some considerable difficulty taking her down. Her teammates didn't correct her so as to not wound her pride.

"Right, we need to see this for ourselves!" Yang exclaimed getting up from the table.

Pyrrha had been waiting for this eventuality, the blonde Brawler was always keen to prove herself against tough opponents and would never have been able to resist a challenge like this.

"Yang, that's all well and good but we don't know where he is or what he looks like," Ruby added.

"Well he's Pyrrha's friend she probably knows where we can find him."

Kai had decided to get up early to wash and go for a walk around campus before his teammates woke up, he had got back late last night and his team had been asleep. His walk got put on hold when he found a tree with large enough branches for him to sit in. He had climbed up into the tree he plugged his headphones into his scroll and lay back against the trunk to listen to his music. He didn't want to face Ashley right now, she was probably still mad about yesterday, so he closed his eyes and dosed off.

He was awoken a few hours later by his scroll vibrating indicating he had a message from Pyrrha. Kai opened it, "Hi, do you want to meet up?" it read. Kai replied telling her where she could find him.

As Kai's reply came through on Pyrrha's scroll her team members and the members of team RWBY looked over her shoulder reading the message with Pyrrha. Ruby and Yang were the first to start running to where Kai had said for Pyrrha to meet him; the others were hot on their heels.

Arriving first Ruby and Yang began looking around even though they had no idea what their quarry even looked like, "Where do you think he is?" Yang asked no one in particular.

"Maybe he's invisible!" Ruby exclaimed squinting her eyes in a vain attempt to find the Ninja.

As the others caught up, Pyrrha being the last to arrive, they also preceded to help with the search. The members of team JNPR having a distinct advantage as they actually knew what Kai looked like.

Pyrrha felt a hand on her shoulder causing her to turn around, there was no one there.

"I wasn't expecting you to bring seven other people," whispered Kai, his disembodied voice bugging Pyrrha.

"They were reading my scroll over my shoulder," the Spartan replied in a hushed voice.

Pyrrha became unsure where the Ninja was as he had stopped speaking until she noticed Blake's cat ears twitching beneath her bow and the rest of her body tense up. Blake began to stare intently at a single point in the middle of the group.

"She's good." Kai said as he materialised in front of Blake causing the Faunus and the rest of the group to jump backwards with surprise.

Kai grinned as he pulled back his hood; he enjoyed making entrances like that because the reactions he got were always very funny. "So to what do I owe this pleasure?" Kai asked looking around the group. He recognised Juane, Ren and Nora from the night before, but he had not me the other four girls before.

"Hi, I'm Kai," he said but his introduction was met with continued surprised looks, "The common reply is to introduce yourself," Kai joked nervously.

The black haired huntress who had managed to notice him managed to regain her composure first.

"Blake, nice to meet you." This helped the others regain their own composure.

"Weiss Schnee." The white haired Huntress introduced herself.

"Yang," The blonde Brawler added.

"But, but… how did you do that?" the smaller red cloaked girl stuttered, staring at the Ninja. But after a quick nudge from Yang she managed to introduce herself as Ruby.

"Like I asked previously to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Well Nora retold the events of last night and she told it so well that Yang decided that she had to fight you." Pyrrha explained stepping in.

"Just to let you know I won't take no for an answer." Yang added grinning like a maniac.

"Umm well… that's very forward," Kai scratched the back of his head, his cocky attitude gone.

This was the reason he rarely showed off, people always made him prove himself, he hadn't even shown his teammates the extent of his abilities but he had been unable to resist showing off in front of Pyrrha. He loved seeing the look on her face when he pulled off a move that she could not comprehend, it reminded him of when they used to be training partners.

"So what do you say, think you're hard enough to go for a round with me?" the blonde Brawler had started to limber up and threw a few punches in Kai's general direction as if to qualify her statement.

The rest of the group turned to the blonde Ninja waiting for his decision.

Kai looked around at the group, "Well it doesn't look like I have much of a choice," he laughed.

Once again Pyrrha found herself in the training hall watching Kai face off someone he had just met. Yang readied her gauntlets and armed the firing mechanism and Kai once again did up his jacket and pulled up his hood. Pyrrha noticed a big grin spread across the face of the blonde Brawler her Aura making her hair glow as if it was on fire, Yang could never turn down an opportunity to test her skills. So a challenge like Kai had her all fired up.

To everyone's surprise Kai nonchalantly put his hands in his pockets, of course this infuriated Yang because to her it seemed like Kai wasn't taking her seriously. She charged firing rounds from Ember Celica to increase her momentum and threw a heavy punch at the Ninja; Kai did not disappear like everyone was expecting him to, in fact he made no move to avoid the punch. As Pyrrha watched she grew more and more concerned, why wasn't he moving? The punch would certainly cave in his skull if it connected.

At the last second Kai withdrew his left hand from his pocket, it was covered in the black Dust that was the essential for all of his tricks, and punched Yang's hand stopping the punch dead releasing a massive shockwave. Kai felt his shoulder shift in its socket; gritting his teeth he pushed back against the punch. The Huntress threw another wild punch that Kai caught with his other hand, as the pair stood grappling Kai looked up at the blonde Brawler and grinned at her, as she looked directly at him he winked at her. Yang's irises turned from lilac to a fiery red, the Brawler was unable to comprehend why he wasn't taking her seriously. Yang flipped over the top of the Ninja while their hands were still locked. At the top of her arc she fired both of her gauntlets, using the Ninja as a launch platform she shot into the air.

Across the room the other members of the group heard and resounding crack as Kai's left shoulder gave out due to the force placed on it. Pyrrha winced as she remembered the last time she heard that noise.


	4. The Spear and the Spy

… Kai descended upon the Spartan both swords drawn convinced he would be able to land his attack before Pyrrha could react. He was wrong, the Spartan raised her spear instinctively and it punched through his left shoulder destroying the joint and passing out the other side. Pyrrha stumbled back causing the pair to fall to the ground, Kai landed on top still impaled on the Spartan's spear.

His left hand had gone limp causing him to drop the sword it had held, but in his right hand he still held his other sword. The judges had not called the match he could still win, Kai gritted his teeth and pushed against the spear, slowly it slid further through him its passage marked my cracking sounds and blinding flashes of pain. When he was close enough he placed his sword across the Spartan's throat, Kai looked at the judges knowing that they should call an end to the match as he could easily kill his friend here and now if he so desired. But they just sat there watching the pair.

Pyrrha lay terrified as the much larger Ninja held his razor sharp sword against her neck; she knew that the slightest movement from either of them would slice open her throat the results of which she couldn't bear thinking of. She lay there wondering why the judges had not called the match, she looked up at Kai his face had gone pale, his body was beginning to shake violently as it shutdown but the hand holding his sword never wavered or slipped.

The arena was silent, Pyrrha watched in horror as Kai shifted his hand position and she closed her eyes as he drew the sword across her neck. The crowd erupted into terrified screams at what they saw; the Ninja had just executed the Spartan.

The judges ran into the arena pushing Kai off the girl causing the Ninja to scream in pain as the barbs on Pyrrha's spear ripped through the muscles surrounding the joint. It was at that moment they saw that Pyrrha's throat was intact; Pyrrha looked around what had happened? Then she realised Kai had shifted his grip to place the blunt edge of his sword against her throat and had safely performed his finishing move.

She looked across to the prone body of her friend which lay unattended in a pool of his blood. She ran to him picking the larger boy's body up off the ground and began to run in the direction of the medical centre surely they could help her friend. The red haired girl looked down at the blonde boy in her arms his body was limp his blood covering both of them.

Kai was slipping in and out of consciousness he looked up at the red haired girl carrying him he was certain that he knew her but from where? He blacked out again and awoke to find strangers staring down at him.

"Doctor the patient is waking up!" A distant voice shouted.

"Well give him another shot of anaesthetic!" an irritated voice replied, "And get her out of my operating theatre."

There was a scream of distress, "I have to stay…"

Kai felt a cool liquid run into his arm he tried to sit up, what was going on? Strong hands pushed him back down onto the bed and he lost consciousness again… 

Pyrrha looked at Kai as he continued to fight the blonde Brawler; his face bore the same look of determination it had two years ago. The Ninja dived out of the way as Yang descended to the ground aiming a kick at his head. As he stood he tucked his limp arm into his jacket and drew one of his swords, charging at Yang he swung the sword, the Brawler raised her hands to block the strike but none landed. Instead Kai disappeared and reappeared behind her with his sword pointed at the base of Yang's skull.

"I think I win." Kai grinned.

Yang turned to face him, "I guess you did… O my God what happened to your arm!"

As Yang yelled this the remaining members of team RWBY and JNPR ran into the combat arena. Pyrrha ran towards Kai and began to examine his shoulder. Kai looked around the group all of them looked concerned apart from the blonde leader of team JNPR who in fact looked jealous of the attention he was receiving from the red headed girl.

"I can't fix it this time, I'm sorry…" Pyrrha looked down dejectedly.

"He needs to go to the infirmary then!" Weiss interjected.

"She's right Kai," Pyrrha added.

Kai sighed and looked at the ground, "Ok I'll go…"

Pyrrha led the Ninja away from the group who made no move to follow.

"We are going to follow them aren't we?" Ruby asked.

"Of course we are." Yang replied quietly.

Ahead of the group Pyrrha lead Kai down the corridor to the infirmary, "Kai I'm really sorry."

"About what?"

"Your shoulder."

"It wasn't your fault Pyrrha."

"I wasn't talking about just now..."

"Neither was I." Kai put his hand on the red headed girl's shoulder making her turn to face him. She was on the verge of tears. "Pyrrha I don't blame you… I never have."

The Spartan stared into Kai's eyes he was being sincere, after all the pain and problems she had caused him…

Pyrrha placed her head against the Ninja's chest and began to cry; Kai wrapped his arm around his friend and held her close. The pair stood there long enough for the rest of the group to catch up; when they saw the two of them they hid behind the pillars that lined the corridor.

"What's going on?" Ruby whispered.

"Hell if I know, but it looks like Jauney boy here has some competition." Yang replied. Jaune's cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. Everyone knew about the weird on and off relationship between Jaune and Pyrrha but it was rarely if ever mentioned.

"Y-you really think so," Jaune replied nervously.

"They do seem rather close," Ren added looking over at his crestfallen friend.

"Looks like there's some history between them that Pyrrha isn't telling us." Weiss finally said what they had all been thinking.

"Ssshhh he's saying something," Blake interject, her superior Faunus hearing enabling her to listen in on the conversation between their friend and the blonde boy.

"Come on let's get going before I change my mind," Pyrrha had stopped crying but Kai continued to hold her close as they walked off.

Everyone turned to face Blake, "They're heading to the infirmary."

"If we all follow them they'll notice us." Weiss added before the group could start following the pair.

"She's right, we would be too obvious" Ren agreed with the heiress.

"So who's going to follow them?" Yang asked.

The group turned to Blake, "Why me?" She complained.

"You're prefect for the job, you're the only one of us who could sneak in and you're hearing is the best out of all of us." Yang replied.

"Fine I'll do it…" Blake sighed rolling her eyes. Though she pretended that she was not happy with her election as the group's spy something about him had caught her interest and she was keen to find out more about the Ninja.

"Okay report back as soon as possible." Yang said as the remainder of team RWBY and team JNPR headed back to their dorms leaving Blake to follow the Ninja and the Spartan.


	5. Learning the truth

Kai was quickly admitted into the infirmary and his team was called for, Pyrrha was told to wait outside but no one saw the Faunus sneak in. Blake perched in the rafters of the infirmary the shadows obscuring her form. She looked down at Kai who was lying on a bed; he laid there shirtless his jacket hanging on the back of the chair by his bed.

The Ninja was very handsome and was impressively well built. But the most defining feature of the Ninja was the horrible scar across his left shoulder. The red puckered skin started just above his chest with a large circular patch which resembled a puncture wound, a ridge of scar tissue ran from the first patch up and over his shoulder. Blake couldn't imagine how painful it would have been to receive a wound like that.

"You can come down now…" Blake looked down at the Ninja who was looking directly at her. Blake jumped down bemused as to how the Ninja had noticed her.

The Ninja was grinning at her, "You're good but not good enough," he said smirking.

"How did you know I was there?"

"Darkness is a useful ally to have but when you've spent the amount of time in shadows I have the darkness can't keep secrets from me." Kai replied cryptically, "What I want to know is how you noticed me while I was invisible to the rest of your friends?"

"Umm well… I was able to hear you talking with Pyrrha." This bought a surprised look from the Huntsman.

"You're a Faunus aren't you?"

"What! How?" It was Blake's turn to me surprised.

"When something surprises you your ears twitch."

Blake's hand quickly moved to adjust the bow covering her ears.

"You should hide again someone is coming in," Kai said winking at the Faunus.

Blake just managed to jump into the rafters as Ashley burst into the room followed by Pyrrha.

"Where have you been?" Ashley ran towards the Ninja, when she got close to the boy and saw the scar that covered his shoulder she stopped dead. "O my God what happened?"

"Don't worry it's from an old injury." Pyrrha interrupted.

"How would you know?" the small Huntress snapped at the Spartan.

"I was there…"

"What?" Ashley stepped back slightly staring and the Spartan.

Pyrrha looked over at the Ninja "Kai you need to tell them what's wrong so it can be sorted."

"What are you talking about?" Ashley looked between the pair.

From the rafters Blake listened in horror as Pyrrha and Kai recited the story from the Gauntlet tournament.

"Hang on both of you were in the Gauntlet tournament at fifteen…"

"Pyrrha was… I was seventeen…"

"Right you're nineteen, so why are you a first year here?" Ashley was beginning to look very confused.

"I couldn't use my shoulder for fourteen months and had physiotherapy for eight months after that. I nearly didn't make it into Beacon this year."

"So what will happen now?" Ashley asked looking at the two of them.

"I have no idea but it's out of our hands now." Kai looked away from both of the girls.

"Wait, you think they would take you out of Beacon don't you." Pyrrha looked horrified.

"I don't know…"

"That's why you've refused to come to the infirmary previously." Ashley concluded as she finished joining the dots together.

At this point the nurse came in and ushered the two huntresses out of the infirmary telling them that they had to let him rest.

Kai looked up as Blake joined him again. "Are you ok?"

"Why do you ask?" The blonde Huntsman looked up at the Faunus.

"Well you might lose your place at Beacon."

"If it happens it happens there's nothing I can do about it, why are you so worried about me?"

"Umm…" Blake looked at the ground blushing.

"Blake is something up?"

"You and Pyrrha are very close aren't you?"

"What are you talking about?" The blonde Huntsman looked very confused.

"Well it's just the way you act around eachother, there's obviously some history between the two of you."

"History?"

The Huntress turned away from the blonde Ninja blushing even harder, why was she getting so flustered?

Kai stood up and walked over to the Faunus girl. "Why do you ask?"

Blake turned around quickly and bumped into the bare-chested Huntsman. Resting her hands on his chest to support herself, how had he got there so quietly?

"Umm… well…" Blake took a step away from him and turned away, "I-I should go…"

"Probably, if the nurse comes in and you're here…"

"Yeah okay…" Blake walked out of the infirmary, Kai watched her go and when she was out of sight he returned to the bed smiling and shaking his head.

As Blake returned to her dorm she tried to work out where she now stood with the older boy. Was he interested in her? What was it about him that she was interested about? And why did he have to be so damn cryptic?

Blake pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind as she stepped into the dorm of team RWBY. As she entered Ruby and Yang descended upon her with a tonne of questions and Weiss briefly looked up from her desk feigning disinterest.

"So what did you find out?" Yang finally asked.

"Well not a huge amount, I found out a lot about why Pyrrha was really concerned about his injury."

"So there is something going on between them!" Yang exclaimed.

"Really it's not like that…" Blake tried to interrupt.

"Poor Jaune… he'll be crushed…" Ruby continued oblivious of Blake trying to correct her and her sister.

"I wonder when she'll tell Jaune." Yang began to pace around the room.

"I hope its soon the longer it takes the more it will hurt Jaune…" Ruby muttered getting more worried for her friend as the conversation continued.

"Or will she tell him at all? Maybe this guy is just her bit on the side!" Yang exclaimed.

"O my God you think she would do that?" Ruby exclaimed horrified by what her sister was suggesting.

"It's not like that!" Blake shouted managing to get a word in. "Kai used to fight in tournaments against Pyrrha. In one of their fights he was seriously injured and almost died, Pyrrha blames herself and is protective of him because of that."

"Really?" Yang was astonished by her partner's outburst.

"Yeah it was so severe he had to wait two extra years to come to Beacon"

"Doesn't that make him nineteen?" Ruby interjected.

"It does." Blake confirmed.

At this point Weiss looked up from her work again. "If his injury is that bad should he even be at Beacon? Surely it makes him a liability."

"Well he might even loose his place now if they can't fix his shoulder…"

"That would be terrible; he's such a good fighter." Ruby finished.

"Yeah… it would…" Blake whispered under her breath she lay down on her bed.

"So we know why Pyrrha is protective but are you certain there is nothing going on?" Yang asked.

"No…" Blake sighed.

"Oooo so the plot thinkens…" Yang grinned.

Her team mates continued to question her about what had happened in the infirmary for about another hour, Blake told them everything she hand heard but neglected to tell them about the conversation between her and the older boy.

When they finally realised she had nothing else to say they returned to what they had been doing previously leaving Blake to curl up on her bed and read her copy of 'Ninjas of Love'.

In the dormitory across the hall Pyrrha and Jaune were working quietly on an assignment together while Nora and Ren sat on the Valkyrie's bed talking.

"So what do you think Blake found out?" Nora whispered.

"I don't know Nora." Ren sighed, "I wasn't there…"

"Who do you think she'll choose?"

"I don't know, she seems really interested in Jaune and they get on really well." Ren looked over at his friend sitting next to the Spartan. Their team leader never looked happier when he was around the red haired huntress but tonight he seemed distant.

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"I don't know Nora, I don't know…"

"Jaune are you alright?" Ren and Nora looked over as Pyrrha spoke.

The Spartan had stopped working and was looking at the boy.

"Yeah I'm fine…"

"You know if there is something wrong you know you can tell us, we're here for you… You know that don't you…"

"Don't worry there is nothing wrong." Jaune got up and walked over to his bed.

"Jaune you promised to tell me if there was something wrong after what happened with Cardin."

"There's nothing wrong, I'm just tired…" With that Jaune walked into the team's bathroom to get ready for bed.

Pyrrha turned to Ren and Nora, "What's going on?" she asked raising an eyebrow. Pyrrha knew they had an idea what was going on their body language gave them away.

"Well…" Ren began before he was interrupted by Nora.

"How's Kai's shoulder?"

"Umm well…" Pyrrha stuttered caught off guard by the question.

"Is Kai alright?" Nora repeated innocently.

"Umm… well no it's really bad…" Pyrrha paused looking at the pair. "Is that what this is about?"

"What do you mean?" Ren only just maintaining his composure under the steely glare of the Spartan.

"Something is up and it has something to do with Kai." Pyrrha said as she turned and walked out of the dorm.

"Well that could have gone better…" Ren muttered.

Pyrrha stormed down the corridor extremely upset that her team was keeping something from her. Did they not like her old friend? Why was Jaune acting so weird?


	6. Playing with Fire

Blake walked towards the infirmary it was nearly two weeks since Kai had been sent to the infirmary after his fight with Yang and eleven days since his operation to correct his shoulder. Blake had made a habit of visiting the older boy, they never really did much other than talk. Apart from for lectures Kai was confined to the infirmary so Blake had also begun to bring books along for him to read when he was by himself.

Kai looked up as the Faunus walked into the infirmary, she had been visiting him more often than any of his team members or even Pyrrha.

She walked with a quiet confidence that Kai admired.

"Not going to try and sneak in this time." Kai teased.

Blake looked at the Ninja, the first couple of times she had come to visit she had tried to sneak in to the infirmary in an attempt to best him but he always seemed to know she was there.

"I'm trying not to inflate your ego too much." Blake retorted.

"So what's going on in the outside world?"

Blake rolled her eyes and received a grin in return from the blonde Huntsman. How many times was he going to use that joke? "Not much, Yang and Nora both want rematches though."

"I think they're going to have to wait." Kai laughed, "So to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

"I thought you could use the company…" Blake said as she walked over to the bed Kai was sitting on, "Budge over." Kai shifted in the bed so Blake could sit down next to him.

"Have you finished the last book I lent you?"

"Yeah I have." Kai reached down into the cupboard by the side of the bed and pulled out the book Blake had lent him.

"Did you enjoy it?" Blake inquired.

"Well I don't normally read romance novels but it had a nice pace to it and there were some pretty good action sequences."

"Oh…"

"Don't take that the wrong way I enjoyed it." Kai added quickly, seeing that wasn't the response the girl had expected.

"Oh… Okay that's good to hear." Blake replied perking up slightly, giving the Ninja a romance novel to imply her interest in him had been a long shot anyway.

"Do you know when you'll be discharged yet?"

"Well because they applied Dust during the operation it's healing a lot faster, the doctor reckons that I'll be out tomorrow but it could be months till I can fight again…"

"That's great news!" Blake exclaimed. "How is your shoulder?"

"Could be worse it's really stiff and all the new scar tissue itches like hell since they removed the stitches." Kai complained. Blake had seen what his shoulder now looked like; two extra ridges of scar tissue now ran over his shoulder.

"At least you have been able to wear your normal clothes since they removed them."

"True… that hospital gown they had me in…" Kai shuddered at the memory.

"I thought you looked rather fetching in it." Blake teased.

"Really?" Kai looked up at the Faunus, noticing the grin spreading across her face. "Get out of here." He laughed nudging Blake.

"So if they're discharging you tomorrow do you want to do something?"

"What have you got in mind?"

"Well we could grab a coffee at this nice café I know…" Blake blushed slightly as she asked the older boy out on what was essentially a date. The Ninja paused and looked at her trying to decipher what she was thinking beneath those ears of hers.

The silence between them stretched on for what seemed like an age, Blake became certain he was going to turn her down. "Sounds good." He replied. "Where do you want to meet?"

Blake's ears perked up at his answer, she hadn't planned this far ahead expecting Kai to turn her down because of Pyrrha. "Umm… well…" Blake was certain it was getting hotter in the room. "We could meet at the shuttle to town and go down together…"

"Okay that works for me." Kai replied.

"Excuse me." A curt voice interrupted the pair, Kai and Blake looked over as the nurse walked in, Blake quickly jumped of the bed.

"Visiting time is over." The nurse stated bluntly waiting by the door for Blake to leave. Blake walked across the infirmary to the exit, only stopping to wave to Kai.

As Blake walked back to her dormitory she reflected on what had just occurred. Was he getting the message? He must have, he had agreed to go out with her. Did he think they were going as friends? Blake entered the dormitory and went and sat on her bed, only Yang was in, she gave no indication as to the whereabouts of the remaining to members of team RWBY. Blake looked at Yang who was wandering the room aimlessly, the Brawler was obviously bored.

"Yang could I ask you something?"

"Sure what's up?" Yang stopped wandering over and sitting next to Blake on her bed.

"Well… I was wondering if I could get some advice." Blake loathed telling Yang as the blonde would definitetly use it to poke fun at her, but she had no other choice Ruby and Weiss were out and she couldn't talk to Pyrrha because she still wasn't sure what was going on between the Spartan and Kai.

"Umm… sure what to you want to know?" Yang asked slightly confused by the request.

"I…I think I might have a date tomorrow."

"Really!" Yang exclaimed excited by the sudden development of the discussion. "Who is he? Do I know him? What does he look like?"

Blake blushed at the questions, why had she involved Yang?

"I do know him don't I!" Yang gasped.

Blake nodded causing Yang wriggle about in excitement.

"Come on Blake you're killing me, who is it?"

"Who are we talking about?" Ruby chimed as she walked in carrying a pile of books, the red-hooded girl was shortly followed by the white haired heiress.

"Blake has a date!" Yang squealed.

"Who is he?" Ruby exclaimed.

"I don't know she hasn't said."

"Look I don't know if it's a proper date or if…" Blake stopped, wondering what was actually going to happen tomorrow.

"If what?" Yang asked.

"Well were going down to town tomorrow but I don't know if he realises I like him or if he thinks we're going as friends." Blake answered nervously.

"Where are you going to take him?" Weiss continued the line of questioning.

"Well there's this little café I often go to and I suggest we go there…"

"That's so romantic." Ruby squeaked.

"Really you think so?"

"Yeah of course." Ruby replied.

"We've got a bit side tracked here; we don't even know who this guy is." Yang interrupted.

"O right yeah who is it Blake?" Ruby piped up again.

"Do you remember Pyrrha's friend…" Blake began.

"O my God its Kai isn't it!" Ruby and Yang yelled in synch.

Blake blushed and nodded.

The room went quiet and her teammates stared at her.

"Not bad, does Pyrrha know?" Yang smiled.

"I don't think so…" Blake hadn't considered what the Spartan's reaction would be.

"Careful you're playing with fire there…" Weiss warned.


	7. Books and the Stories they hold

Kai was discharged from the infirmary late the next morning, he returned to his dorm to shower and change. None of his teammates were around because he had told them he wasn't being discharged until late in the evening leaving him all day to be in town. After picking his jacket up off his bed and throwing it on he headed out to meet Blake.

Blake sat waiting on a bench outside the shuttle port, she was restless but when she saw the Ninja approaching she calmed slightly. As Kai walked up nonchalantly she noticed he was wearing a black shirt, black jeans and a pair of checkerboard canvas shoes, he would have looked very smart if he wasn't wearing his tatty old black jacket.

"Do you wear that thing everywhere?"

"Would you go anywhere without your sword?"

Blake looked down at Gambol Shroud, "Of course not!"

"Well there's your answer." He replied smirking.

Kai looked over to the station as the shuttle pulled into the dock. "Come on let's get our seats."

As they sat down Blake moved close to the older boy. "So why is that jacket so important?"

"Well it is to me what your sword is to you." All these cryptic answers were starting to get on Blake's nerves.

"How is that?"

"Well it holds all my tricks…" He said winking at her.

"Like when you disappear?"

"Well yeah and a whole lot more."

"Such as?"

"Well there's this." he responded flicking his wrist revealing a seven inch serrated blade causing Blake to jump, before quickly returning it to its original position.

"How many 'tricks' do you have?" Blake asked genuinely curious.

"That my little Faunus friend is a secret." He replied, if he was being honest Kai had lost count and most of the time his 'tricks' were nearly always made up on the spot. Kai leaned back placing his arm across the back of the bench they sat on.

Blake's heart did little back flips in her chest as she moved in a little closer to the older boy. They sat like this for the rest of the journey idly talking about work and their friends. Fifteen minutes later the pair sat in a small café that was joined to a bookstore.

"This place is nice; I can see why you like it."

"Yeah, I like to come here to sit and read. It's nice to leave the rush for a couple of hours."

"So do you come here often?" As Kai asked this the waiter walked up to the table to take their order.

"Hi Blake, who's your friend?"

"Oh hi Gavin, this is Kai he's a friend from Beacon."

"Nice to meet you." Kai said looking up at the waiter.

"So what can I get you two?" Gavin pulled out a small notebook to take their order.

"What do you recommend?" Blake asked.

"There's this new Amaretto coffee that's pretty good."

"Okay I'll try that." Blake replied. "What about you Kai?"

"I'll have the same thanks."

"I'll have them for you as soon as possible." Gavin turned and headed back over to the counter.

"I guess that answers my question." Kai turned back to the Faunus smiling. "So why did you invite me out today?"

"I was hoping to get to know you better."

"Alright what do you want to know?" Kai sat up a little straighter and looked at the girl across the table.

"Where do you come from?" 'That's a safe question' Blake thought to herself.

"A small town by the coast called Warsash."

"That's an odd name… Where does the name originate from?"

"During the war between the Humans and the Faunus the people in the area sheltered Faunus who wanted no part in the war." Kai paused and saw the girl's amber eyes staring at him intently. "The area was considered a safe haven. It didn't remain that way eventually a group of Humans who weren't as accepting of the Faunus came to the old town, disgusted by the mixing of the two races they burnt the old town to the ground…"

"That's horrible…" Blake looked down at the table this was not how she had envisioned the conversation going.

"Warsash was built on the ashes of the old town and earned its namesake to serve as a reminder of the Humans and Faunus who died together." The blonde Huntsman looked across the table at the Faunus girl. "I'm sorry you probably didn't want to hear about that."

Blake looked up her eyes locking with the piercing blue eyes of the Ninja. "You said they died together…"

"The anti-Faunus group told the people of the old town to turn over the Faunus they were sheltering; the townsfolk refused so they burned everything and everyone." At this point the older boy broke eye contact and looked down at the table. Blake reached over and picked up his hands placing them between hers, he looked back up at her. They sat there in silence staring at eachother; they didn't even break eye contact when Gavin arrived to give them their drinks.

"Thanks." Kai responded curtly, Gavin turned and left quickly.

Blake was the first to break contact as she retreated back across the table grabbing her cup after a brief pause Kai followed suit.

"What's it like to live there?"

"You would never realise its past if you looked at it now but it's kind of quiet, everyone who lives there knows the story… It makes for a very sombre feeling, like it's the only thing on everyone's mind."

This wasn't going the way Blake had imagined it would, the older boy looked rather uncomfortable discussing the subject with her. The pair sat in an uncomfortable silence drinking their coffees, until Kai placed is empty cup on the table and stood up, Blake looked up as he stood.

"Do you want to go and have a look around?" he nodded towards the bookstore.

Blake nodded as she placed her empty cup on the table, to her surprise the older boy waked over to the counter paid for the drinks and returned to the table as she got up. The pair walked into the bookstore section and began to walk aimlessly along the aisles. Blake stepped ahead of the Ninja and turned to face him, "You know you're really not what I expected you to be like."

"How do you mean?"

"You're just not how I imagined you being."

"I've be on your mind have I?" Kai raised an eyebrow.

Blake took a step back blushing, "Umm… that's not what I meant…"

"Alright I'll take your word for it." Kai turned towards the shelves.

Blake kicked herself for dropping the ball, was Kai disregarding her advances because of Pyrrha? Blake looked around at the shelves and picked up a book she had been looking for.

"Ninja's of Love. That's the second book as well isn't it?" Blake spun around to see Kai looking at the book. "No wonder I wasn't what you expected if you've read those books." The Ninja grinned yet again.

The Faunus girl blushed he had probably just worked out how she felt about him in possibly the most embarrassing way possible. "You really worry too much…" The Ninja began.

Blake cut him off abruptly as she leaned in a kissed him briefly on the lips, the brief contact sent butterflies flying around her stomach. She looked up at the older boy who winked at her before they both leaned in and kissed again passionately.

Kai walked Blake back at her room kissing her briefly before wandering off down the corridor to his team's dorm.

"So your date went well then." Ruby appeared from behind the door.

"I would say it went more than well…" Yang added appearing from behind her sister smirking.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Blake walked past her teammates and into their room smiling.

Kai returned to his team's dorm, as he entered he was relieved to see that only Fletcher was in. The Woodsman was tightening the string on his bow as Kai entered he looked up. "Nice to have you back mate."

"Yeah feels good to be back." Kai replied collapsing on to his bed.

Fletcher turned back to his weapon leaving Kai to whatever he was doing.

"Fletch why didn't you say Kai was back?" Iris scolded the other Huntsman as she entered the room.

"He only just got in." The long haired Huntsman didn't even look up from what he was doing. This seemed to annoy the small tanned Huntress, who turned to the Ninja who was lying face down on his bed.

"So how are you?"

"Could be worse." Came the muffled reply.

"You're back earlier than I thought you would be."

"I got out early so I thought I would surprise you." Kai replied rolling over.

"Really, so who was the girl I saw you with earlier?" The Huntress placed her hands on her hips and stared at the older boy.

Realising he was busted Kai decided to own up, "I went into town with her today."

"Mate you know Ashley is going to kill you for lying to her." Fletcher warned as he tested the draw of his bow.

"Cheers mate that was really helpful." Kai responded sarcastically rolling his eyes.

"Yeah you owe me one," the Woodsman laughed.

Kai turned to look at Iris, "Please don't tell Ashley."

"I won't as long as you tell me more about this girl…" The Huntress grinned.

As she said that Kai relaxed and began to tell his teammates about how Blake had been visiting him at the infirmary and how she had asked him into town for coffee.


	8. Promises

The next day Blake sat in the cafeteria with team JNPR and the rest of team RWBY across the room she could see Kai sitting at a table with a group of people who she assumed was his team. Her disappearance yesterday had not gone unnoticed by the other team.

"So what did you do yesterday Blake?" Nora asked.

"Oh… not a lot…" Blake responded unsure if she should mention her date with Kai in front of Pyrrha.

"Not a lot!" Yang erupted. "She was on a date yesterday."

"How did it go?" Nora whispered excitedly.

"Okay I guess." She replied.

"So who did you go with?" Ren asked stoically unaware of the potential landmine he had just stepped on.

Blake looked around at the faces of her friends stopping at Pyrrha. "Kai…" she whispered looking down at the table. The group went deathly silent, Blake looked back up to see the Spartan's emerald eyes staring at her. Pyrrha turned away as she got up and left the table, "Pyrrha, I'm sorry…" Blake called after the Spartan as she walked away fists clenched.

"I should go and see if she's alright." Jaune got up from the table and hurried after his teammate.

Across the room Kai watched on as this occurred confused as to what was going on.

"Kai, do you want to come into town today?" Ashley asked, she and Iris had been planning to head into Vale to shop for something. Kai was unsure what it was as he hadn't really been listening.

"Sorry I can't, I've got some work to catch up on." He replied, this seemed to be a satisfactory response for the Huntresses who both left the table to head into town.

"Bye Fletch." Iris waved back at the Woodsman.

When the girls were out of hearing distance Kai leaned in towards his friend, "Fletch?"

"I have no idea, she started to call me that while you were in the infirmary." The Woodsman leaned back, "So what are you actually going to do today?"

"What do you think?"

"Alright so which one is she?" Fletcher asked scanning the cafeteria.

"Do you see the girl in black with the bow?"

Fletcher looked around for a couple more seconds, "You mean the one with her head in her hands."

"What?" Kai looked across the room to see Blake surrounded by her teammates exactly as Fletcher had described her.

Kai got up and hurried across the room followed by Fletcher. As they arrived at the table they were met with cold stares from Blake's team.

"Blake…" The Faunus girl looked up at him her amber eyes searching for something. She got up walked over to him grabbed his arm and lead him away, leaving Fletcher with the remaining members of team RWBY and team JNPR.

"Hi I'm Fletcher by the way."

"Blake where are we going?" Kai asked as the Faunus girl lead him out into the courtyard.

"There's something going on between you and Pyrrha isn't there." She stated bluntly, turning to face the older boy.

"What's going on Blake?" The Ninja took a step in closer to the girl trying to catch her eye.

"What is going on between you and Pyrrha?"

"Nothing, what are you talking about?"

"Then why was she so upset when I mentioned what happened yesterday?" Her amber eyes looking straight into his.

"Blake I swear that I have no idea what's going on."

"Please Kai promise me there's nothing going on."

"I promise." Kai looked directly at the smaller Huntress, "I wouldn't put you or anyone else through that, I promise." Kai wrapped his arms around the girl drawing her close.

Blake placed her head against his chest and listened to his beating heart.

As they stood there in the courtyard Pyrrha watched them from the window of her dormitory. As she sat there watching them she knew she should be happy for both of her friends but a small part of her wished she was down there with Kai. Her thoughts were interrupted as Jaune walked into the room.

"Pyrrha are you alright?" The Spartan looked up at the Huntsman.

"Yeah I'm fine." Jaune walked across to her bed and sat down next to her. Pyrrha leaned in close to the boy and he wrapped his arm around her.

"You know if there is something wrong you should tell your team." Pyrrha smiled as her team leader reiterated her own words. "It's got something to do with Kai hasn't it."

"Yes it does..." She knew that by brooding over the older boy was hurting Jaune but she couldn't help it.

"So why don't you go and talk to him?"

"When? I can't when Blake is around that's for sure."

"Pyrrha you need to sort this out..." Jaune shifted of the bed to look Pyrrha straight in the eyes. "Promise me you'll talk to him."

"I'll try..."


	9. Combat Ready

Ruby, Yang and Weiss sat in Professor Oobleck's class on the war between the Humans and the Faunus. He was explaining how a small group of Faunus had been able to defend a gorge against a much larger force because of the terrain. Weiss was furiously copying down notes while Ruby and Yang goofed off.

Yang looked up to the back of the lecture theatre Blake and Kai sat at the back of the room they seemed to be happily enjoying each other's company. Blake seemed to be giggling; Yang was certain she had never seen the Faunus giggle before.

Oobleck stopped zipping around the front of the hall and dismissed the class claiming that he was done for the day. Ruby, Yang and Weiss collected their notes and walked out of the hall outside Blake was waiting for them, Kai was talking to Fletcher about some work that they needed to do so she joined them.

"So Blake have you and Kai got any plans for today?" Yang teased.

"No we haven't planned anything, why do you ask?"

"We were wondering if you wanted to go out for a bit." Ruby offered.

Kai wandered over and joined the group. "So what's going on over here?"

"We were planning a team outing." Weiss replied abruptly.

"Okay fair enough," Kai scratched the back of his neck, why did the Heiress always act weird around him? "Anyway Blake I've got to go do some fitness training with Fletcher before I have my shoulder reassessed so I can start combat training again," the Ninja was obviously excited to have the opportunity to get back to training. "So I'm not going to be around most of the day."

"Oh… Okay what are you doing this evening?" Blake was obviously disappointed that she couldn't spend the day with her boyfriend but she didn't complain.

"Not a lot, I'll be in if you want to come over." The older boy offered.

"Sounds good." Blake replied enthusiastically.

"Mate we need to go." Kai looked over his shoulder at Fletcher.

"One sec mate." He turned back to the girls. "Sorry I've got to go… See you later."

Blake stepped in close and kissed him on the cheek," See you later."

With that Kai turned on his heels and ran down the corridor to join his teammate.

"Looks like were having a girls day out then." Yang said as she watched the two boys turn the corner and head out of sight.

"Yay! What are we going to do?" Ruby began to bounce on the spot unable to control her excitement.

"I sounded like Weiss had something planned." Blake turned to the Heiress, "What were you thinking of doing?"

"I was going to suggest that we go out to the fields by the cliff for a picnic."

"That sounds… Awesome!" Ruby exclaimed.

"That does seems like a nice thing to do." Blake agreed.

Yang was not enthused by the trip as it didn't really didn't seem that exciting but the rest of her team wanted to go so she agreed.

"Okay let's meet in the courtyard in ten minutes, Yang and Blake go and get some drinks, Ruby and I will organise some food."

"Yes ma'am!" Yang stood to attention mocking her white haired teammate before she and Blake headed off to organise the drinks.

In the training hall Fletcher stood to the side watching his friend warm up for his assessment, knowing how much passing meant to his teammate he was nervous for him.

"Hey Fletch, get over here." Kai called to his teammate.

Fletcher frowned as he walked over, "I told you not to call me that."

"So why does Iris get away with it?" Kai smirked knowing he had the Woodsman cornered.

"Shut up…" Fletcher laughed. "So what did you actually want?"

"I was going to suggest doing some unarmed hand to hand combat."

Fletcher looked at Kai's jacket. "No tricks."

Kai took of his beloved jacket and put it to the side. "Just you and me man, one on one."

Fletcher placed his bow and quiver to the side and rolled his shoulders to loosen his joints.

Both of the Huntsmen took up their fighting guards and began to circle eachother, Fletcher was the first to move aiming a roundhouse kick at Kai's knee.

The Ninja checked the kick with a kick of his own causing the Woodsman to flick his kick up towards his head. Kai moved in keeping his guard high and chased down the kick to stop the attack, moving into punching range he began to blitz forward throwing a storm of punches at the younger Huntsman.

Fletcher stepped back blocking the flurry of punches attacking his midriff his hands moving as fast as the Ninja's, Kai switched up his offense throwing a hay-maker up towards Fletcher's head.

The Woodsman parried the strike moving to the outside of the punch grabbing the older boy's arm and began to apply a wrist lock. Sensing the pressure being applied Kai flipped backwards over Fletcher's head twisting his arm free at the bottom of his arc he twisted throwing a double reverse kick at the Woodsman. Fletcher turned raising his arms in an X shape to defend the kick, the strike connected with his forearms forcing him backwards.

Kai landed face down in the press up position, pushing up he popped back up to face his opponent. Fletcher moved in taking the offensive coming in with a flurry of strikes. The Ninja stepped back blocking the blows instinctively.

Fletcher flicked a sneaky kick towards his ankle in an attempt to sweep the older boy of his feet. Kai lifted his foot up allowing the kick to pass under it and kicked the back of Fletcher's leg, reversing the attack.

Kai slipped in behind the Woodsman going in for the choke but had to duck under a reverse hook kick that was thrown as Fletcher turned to face him. From his low position Kai dived at the younger Huntsman forcing his shoulder into Fletcher stomach, lifting the Woodsman of his feet and taking him to the ground.

As Fletcher hit the deck Kai jumped on top of him pinning his friend to the ground.

"Buy me dinner first." Fletcher joked as he pushed off the ground flipping the Ninja over his head and rolling backwards over Kai to pin the Ninja. As Fletcher landed straddling the older Huntsman's chest Kai lunged up grabbing him pulling him in close so he couldn't throw any punches down.

Kai wrapped his leg around Fletcher's locking it in close destabilising the Woodsman. Kai pushed up against the other Huntsman forcing Fletcher into the air giving the Ninja space to pull his legs in close. As gravity pulled Fletcher back down Kai snapped out his legs kicking the Woodsman square in the chest throwing him across the combat ring.

Kai rolled backwards over his shoulder and stood, pleased to find there was no pain at all. Across the ring Fletcher dragged himself up off the floor and stared back at Kai, the pair stood stock still staring eachother down. Slowly massive grins formed on both their faces.

"That was bloody awesome!" Fletcher shouted.

"That's enough thank you Mister Wooding." Both of the Huntsmen turned at the mention of Fletcher's last name. Glynda Goodwitch walked into the ring. "Mister Gravett you are still under doctor's orders not to be fighting." Kai looked away under the gaze of the powerful Huntress; he had no excuse for his actions.

"However it is evident that you are combat ready so if you pass the doctors assessment today I will put you back on the active roster."

Kai looked back at the Huntress. "Thank you so much Professor Goodwitch."

"That's quite alright but if you will please leave I have third year class in here now."

Kai and Fletcher grabbed their equipment and left the training hall.

"Nice one mate, it looked like you impressed her." Fletcher told Kai as they walked along the corridor.


	10. Something worth Celebrating

Team RWBY sat out by the cliff they had been launched from during their initiation. Weiss was scolding Ruby for demolishing the plate of cookies in one fell swoop. The red hooded girl was trying to placate the Heiress, but the crumbs and chocolate smudges on her face made it very hard to take her seriously.

Blake sat on the cliff her legs dangling of the edge and her face turned skyward. Basking in the sun with the cool breeze blowing across her body she couldn't have been happier.

"Sooo… how's it going?" Blake turned to face Yang as the Brawler sat down next to her.

"I'm glad Weiss suggested coming out here it such a lovely view."

"You know that's not what I'm talking about…" Yang shifted closer to her winking.

Blake lay back against the pillow of long grass that formed under her head.

"It's going well…"

"Aww… come on Blake you've got to give me a bit more than that." Yang moaned.

"What do you want me to tell you?" Blake turned to face the blonde girl.

"Well you could tell me what you're up to when you sneak out after everyone has gone to bed."

Blake blushed she had been so certain no one had seen her. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Blake… don't lie to me." Yang looked down at the Faunus girl.

After a brief pause Blake turned the face the Brawler, "Fine, I go and see Kai."

"Oooo… in his room?" Yang whispered.

"No!" Blake replied quickly.

"So where then?" Yang didn't let up.

"Out on the benches, by the statue in the courtyard."

"What hidden around behind those bushes?" Yang exclaimed.

"Well yeah…" Blake began.

"You're such a naughty girl, dragging a much older boy outside in the middle of the night and hiding in the bushes." Yang said winking suggestively.

"It's nothing like that!" Blake retorted.

"So what do you do out there?"

"We sit and talk…"

"Yeah right… I bet you spend most of the time like this." Yang turned her back to Blake, wrapped her arms around herself and began to make kissing noises.

Blake didn't reply because Yang was right but she refused to admit it.

Yang turned back grinning, "I knew it!"

Blake rolled her eyes causing the Brawler to burst out laughing.

Ruby and Weiss walked over to join their teammates, looking down at the blonde girl rolling around on the floor they turned to Blake.

"Umm what's up with her?" Ruby asked pointing at her sister.

"There's nothing wrong." Yang replied before Blake could answer.

"Then why are you rolling around on the floor?" Weiss asked.

"Blake is being a very naughty girl." Yang smirked.

"What?" Ruby and Weiss gasped.

"She's been going out in the middle of the night for liaisons with a certain Huntsman." Yang continued.

"It's not like that…" Blake began.

"So what are you going to do tonight?" Yang asked.

"What?" Blake was getting really confused.

"He invited you back to his dorm what's going on there?" Yang began to make suggestive movements while winking at Blake. Fortunately these went straight over Ruby's head but a glare from Weiss caused her to stop.

"I-I don't know…" Blake blushed at what Yang was suggesting.

Ruby still oblivious to what Yang was suggesting turned to Blake. "He's probably trying to bring you two closer together."

"Yeah a lot closer… Ouch…" Yang recoiled from the slap on the back of the head she had received from Weiss. "What was that for?"

"Stop being so vulgar." Weiss scorned the blonde girl. "Anyway we should be heading back now."

Kai returned to his dorm in high spirits the doctor had cleared him for combat and he was bouncing of the walls with happiness. As the Ninja walked in all of his teammates looked up, his mood answering the question they were all wondering.

"So you're cleared for training then." Ashley stated from across the room.

Kai nodded in response.

"That's great!" Iris ran up to him and hugged him. "The team is back up to full strength, we need to do something to celebrate."

"I think we should probably finish the assignment from Professor Port before we plan anything." Ashley added returning to the work she was doing. Iris was obviously unhappy about this but sat back down next to their team leader.

"Well we've done that, so what do you want to do?" Fletcher asked turning to Kai.

Kai looked at his and Fletcher's side of the room, it was an absolute mess compared to the girl's side.

"I guess we probably clean up a bit." Kai said as he gathered up his dirty washing, Fletcher followed suit and they took their close to the laundry room.

As they returned Fletcher asked "So when's she coming over?"

"Nothing gets past you does it?" Kai replied.

"Not when you basically stated that she was coming over." Fletcher grinned. "When was the last time you cleaned up at all?"

"After Ashley got pissed off when it started to smell." Kai laughed nodding his head.

"Exactly, you're really not as subtle as you think you are." Fletcher said as he shoulder bumped Kai.

"Quit it." Kai replied as he pushed back against his friend.

As they entered the room laughing they were met with Ashley standing just inside the door.

"So when is Blake getting here?" She asked.

"Told you so." Fletcher taunted as he went over to his bed.

"Probably after dinner." Kai replied.

"Okay so do you want us out of the way?" She asked.

"Umm you don't have to…" Kai replied scratching the back of his neck.

"We'll go after she turns up. But for now you're going to celebrate with your team."

Fletcher plugged his scroll into the sound system they shared and put on some music while Ashley and Iris arranged for some food to be bought to their room.

Blake was lost; she had never been to Kai's dorm before so she was currently wandering along the corridors aimlessly. The older boy and his team hadn't been in the cafeteria for dinner that evening so she was concerned had something happened? Had Kai failed his assessment? That would have crushed him.

She was about to give up searching when she received a message from Kai on her scroll. Opening it she read the message, 'Behind you.' Blake turned around and sure enough Kai was leaning against his team's doorframe waving at her. Blake ran over to him and hugged him, she was about to ask him where he had been as they stepped into the room. However she was abruptly stopped as her ears were assaulted by loud music coming from a sound system in the room.

She winced slightly which Kai noticed, "Fletcher turn it down!" he yelled over the thumbing Bass line.

The long haired Huntsman turned around bottle in hand, noticing Blake's appearance he moved over to the sound system and turned down the music much to the disappointment of the two female members of the team who had been dancing on Iris's bed.

"Sorry Blake I completely forgot." Kai apologised nodding towards her ears.

"It's okay but how come I didn't hear it outside?" The older Huntsman was not forthcoming with an answer. "It's another trick isn't it?"

"Yep." He replied grinning as he moved to introduce his teammates.

Fletcher had walked over to join them a bottle in each hand, "Drink up." He said passing the unopened bottle to Blake.

"Blake this is Fletcher and I wouldn't drink that it's quite strong." Kai advised.

"What is it?" Blake examined the bottle not recognising the label.

"Beer." Fletcher replied.

"But alcohol is not allowed…" Blake pushed the bottle back into Fletcher's hand.

"If you're underage, Kai here isn't." Fletcher explained.

Blake continued to look back sceptically at the Huntsmen.

"It's alright Blake if you don't want to drink you don't have to. No one here will force you…"

"No promises mate." Fletcher laughed putting the bottle down on the table next to them.

"Ashley! Iris!" Kai called to the two girls who had stopped dancing and were now talking over the other side of the room. The girls stopped talking and walked over, "Ashley and Iris meet Blake."

"O my God her bow is so cute!" Iris squeaked after the introduction. The two girls had obviously been drinking as well but seemed at lot worse for wear than the boys.

"So have you come to celebrate as well?" Ashley asked the Faunus girl.

"Celebrate what?"

"Kai's recovery of course!" Iris was beginning to slur her words.

Fletcher moved in to support the small Huntress, "I think I'll take her out to get some air." He said escorting her out the door.

"Wait up!" Ashley called after the pair. "Can't leave Fletcher with Iris when she's in this sort of state."

Blake was very surprised by the rapid evacuation of the room, while she stood in the centre of the room Kai moved over to the sound system and turned it off.

When the room was silent Blake moved over to join him.

"So… you're better now…"

"Yep, I was cleared for combat training just before dinner." The older boy obviously was pleased with himself.

"So you decided to celebrate?"

"Yeah that wasn't my decision, but it seemed like the right thing to do."

"What seems like the right thing to do now?" Blake moved in close a kissed him.

"I think we should celebrate in our own way." Kai replied as he kissed her again. 

Authors Note: Hey guys I've be trying to avoid adding an authors note at the end of chapters because I don't want to break up the story but I'm wondering where people think this story is going. I've planned a few chapters ahead but I think it would be interesting to find out what you guys think is going on. If you guys have questions private message me, anyway look after yourselves, later...


	11. The Morning After

Blake awoke whatever she was lying on was really comfortable and warm, slowly regaining her senses she opened her eyes. Where was she? She wasn't in her bed she knew that, looking down she realised that she was lying with her head on Kai's bare chest.

She looked down she was fully clothed and he was still wearing trousers, that was a good sign right? Her movements disturbed the sleeping boy underneath her.

"Good morning Kitten." Kai yawned.

Blake frowned, when had he started calling her that? Blake felt for her bow, where was it?

"Your bow is on the floor." Kai explained reaching down to retrieve it for her.

"What happened last night?" She asked, trying to piece the fragments of her memory together but stopped quickly as it was beginning to give her a headache.

"Well you decided to try some alcohol and the night got a whole lot more interesting from there onwards."

"We didn't… you know…" Blake was worried; she could remember so little of the previous night.

"No, you said you wanted to take things slowly, so we just had a laugh and a drink. Unfortunately you had a bit too much fun and fell asleep on top of me.

Their pleasant awakening was soon interrupted by a banging on the door. "Blake Belladonna, open this door immediately!" It was Weiss she didn't sound happy.

There were moans all around the room as the other members of team AIKF were awoken by the noise.

"Who's making that much noise at this ungodly hour?" Fletcher got up wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and walked over to the door which was still being hammered upon.

Opening the door he was met by the faces of Ruby, Yang and Weiss.

"Well hello who are you?" Yang asked as she checked out the Woodsman.

Weiss pushed pass Fletcher and entered the room but instantly stopped dead upon seeing the Faunus lying in the bed with Kai.

"I told you she was being naughty!" Yang exclaimed as she entered the room.

"No offense but who the hell are you?" Ashley asked from her bed.

"Umm… What's going on?" Ruby asked as she looked at the mess that was team AIKF's dorm.

Weiss turned to her younger teammate and ushered her out of the room. "We are going to talk about this later." She said glaring at Blake.

"So guys this is Yang." Kai introduced the blonde girl who had got uncomfortably close to him and Blake. "And they were Ruby and Weiss, they're Blake's teammates."

"Yeah and we came to get her back." Yang was speaking a little too loudly and was obviously irritating Ashley.

"Yang could you keep it down please." Blake asked pushing herself into a sitting position.

Yang looked around the room taking in the empty bottles. "O my God you're hung-over!" The Brawler exclaimed for which she received dirty looks from all around the room.

"Sorry." She whispered.

Kai got up out of the bed revealing he was also topless, Yang's jaw dropped.

"Blake…" She whispered.

Blake jumped out of the bed, quickly kissed Kai on the cheek and pulled her teammate who was still staring at the two Huntsmen out the door. Fletcher closed the door behind them and went back to his bed. Kai turned around and followed suit.

Blake dragged her speechless teammate along the corridor, Yang eventually managed to put her thoughts together.

"I knew it!" The Brawler screeched.

"Shut up…" Blake pleaded.

As they entered their room Weiss was standing in the middle of the room and Ruby was sitting on her bed.

"Why didn't you come back last night?" The Heiress demanded.

"I think that answer is an obvious one…" Yang teased.

"Yang!" Weiss snapped.

"What?" Yang smirked. "So Blake what went on last night?"

Blake sat on her bed holding her head. "Can we not do this now please…"

"What's going on?" Weiss asked turning to Yang.

"Our little Faunus friend is a bit fragile." Yang replied.

"What are you talking about?" Ruby asked, the younger girl was not keeping up with what was going on.

"Seriously Blake tell us what happened." Weiss insisted.

"We were drinking and I; well I kind of fell asleep on Kai." Blake lay down on her bed closing her eyes, her head felt like it was going to split open.

"You were drinking!" Weiss yelled. "Blake you're too young."

"Weiss please not now." Blake begged her teammate.

"Weiss I think she needs some rest." Yang interjected, she could make fun of Blake later but now wasn't a good time.

Blake's scroll buzzed indicating she had a message; Weiss picked it up and checked it for her. As she read her face went dark, throwing the scroll down on to her bed and stormed over to the door.

Kai now fully clothed was not expecting the Heiress to answer the door, "What did you think you were doing!" Weiss yelled dragging the older boy into their room. "This is your fault!" The white haired girl pointed at Blake who was curled up on her bed.

Kai moved over and sat down next to the girl, "Blake… Blake…" The Faunus girl shifted and looked up at him. "How's it going?"

"I feel like my head is about to split." Blake moaned.

"I'm not surprised you smashed it last night." Kai grinned.

"What are you talking about?" Ruby and Yang asked.

"She out drank Fletcher which is damn impressive." Kai replied smirking. "Come on Blake let's get some food in you it'll help I promise." Kai helped Blake up off her bed.

Ruby, Yang and Weiss watched as Kai put Blake's arm around his shoulder and half carried Blake out of the room and down the corridor towards the cafeteria.

"We should go with them." Weiss began.

"No leave them to it." Yang told the Heiress.

Kai sat in the empty cafeteria with Blake leaning on him; he was trying to get her to eat some food with little success.

"So what do you remember from last night?" Kai asked.

"Umm… well…. I remember deciding to start drinking."

"That's a good start, anything else?"

Blake scrunched her face up as she thought hard about what had happened. "Fletcher came back with the two girls and everything started up again… and…"

"And what?"

"I joined in I think…" Blake vaguely remembered a deep baseline and dancing with Kai.

"Yeah you did." Kai confirmed, "It was nice to see you cut loose and have some fun."

Blake took a sip of water, her mouth was really dry. "How much did we drink?"

Kai grinned, "Fletcher challenged everyone to a drinking competition, you beat him by the way."

"That's wonderful…" Blake replied sarcastically putting her head on the table its cold surface cooling her face. "What about you? How come you're so chip a cheerful?"

"I've got used to it…"

"How could anyone get used to this?" Blake replied from the table.

"Most of my friends are from the competitive combat circuit and were generally older than me. "They used to sneak me and Pyrrha when she was a bit older into clubs and bars to celebrate after tournaments."

"They sound like great role models…" Blake sounded half asleep.

"Yeah," Kai laughed, "Here I think you might want this back." He pulled Blake's bow out and handed it to her.

Blake grabbed her bow and put it back on, "I can't believe I left it." The Faunus girl was shocked out of her stupor.

"Why do you worry about hiding your ears so much?" Kai asked.

"People stare…"

"And that bothers you?"

"Well yeah…"

"Why?"

"Umm… well…" Blake didn't have an answer. "People judge you if they know you're a Faunus."

"What, because of the stereotype that all Faunus are White Fang terrorists."

"Yeah…"

"So just prove to people that you're a good person and they won't believe the stereotype.

Blake paused thinking about how her own actions and involvement with the White Fang.

"Come on eat up, you'll feel better."


	12. Shadows and Fury

Pyrrha had been waiting for a good moment to talk to Kai but Blake always seemed to be around. However in the locker room before their combat lesson Blake had headed into the training hall with her team leaving Kai to rummage around in his locker.

It wasn't the best time to try and talk to him as there were still people around but Pyrrha couldn't think of another time Kai would be alone.

"Hey Kai." Pyrrha said walking towards him, she got no response, "Kai." Still nothing was he ignoring her?

"Kai!" Pyrrha yelled jabbing the Ninja in the ribs.

The older boy started banging his head on the inside of his locker. "Bollocks!" the boy whipped around, "What the hell Fletcher? O hi Pyrrha…" Kai scratched the back of his neck as he removed the headphones he was wearing.

Pyrrha could hear the music he was listening to she vaguely recognised the tune, she remembered hearing it coming from team RWBY's room at so point.

"Sorry I didn't realise…"

"No worries no harm done, what can I do for you?"

Pyrrha knew what she wanted him to do but she didn't really see it happening. "I was wondering if we could talk."

"Now?" Kai looked over to the entrance to the training hall.

"It won't take long I promise." Pyrrha added quickly.

"I guess so… What's up?"

Pyrrha couldn't think of how to express her feelings for the boy especially now that he was involved with one of her friends. Yang the resident gossip monger had made sure that she had found out about Blake sleeping in Kai's bed.

"Look I don't know how to say this…" The Spartan began before stopping.

"Say what?" Kai put his hand on her shoulder. "What's going on Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha looked back at her old friend; she had stared down Ursa, fought Deathstalkers and countless other creatures of Grimm, so why the hell was she petrified while talking to her friend?

"You know what you're right we should get to training." Pyrrha turned and walked straight into the training hall.

Kai stood there bemused, shaking his head he grabbed his swords threw his locker door shut and followed Pyrrha in.

"Mister Gravett seem as you're just back onto the active roster let's have you up first." Glynda Goodwitch announced from the raised combat ring, "And you will be sparring…"

"Professor, I would like to volunteer." Yang stood up drawing surprised looks from the other students. Kai was generally believed to be a rather mediocre Huntsman among the student population all of whom had never seen even one of his 'tricks'. So Yang, one of the best fighters in the year volunteering to fight him was a surprise.

"I would also like to volunteer." Nora began to jump up and down on the spot.

Glynda Goodwitch stood there in silence also surprised by the volunteers, "Please sit, both of you!" she added as Nora continued to bounce on the spot.

Yang and Nora dropped to their seats, their chances for a rematch scuppered.

"Where was I? O yes Jaune Arc please join Kai in the ring." Kai and Jaune both stood and walked to the ring.

Blake watched as Kai entered the ring, where was his jacket? The older boy was wearing a pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt which bore a skull emblem across the left shoulder.

As Kai entered the ring he pulled one sword from its scabbard on his back, twirling the blade he threw it into the air and catching it in a reverse grip he took up his guard stance. Across the ring Jaune drew his sword and shield. The two boys stood there in silence facing eachother, Jaune knew what the Ninja could do but was equally confused by the absence of his jacket that currently hung in his locker.

Throwing caution to the wind Jaune charged drawing his sword back and lowering his shield to attack. As the sword came down Kai ducked under the strike and slid through the boy's legs. Jaune turned using his shield to strike out at the older boy. Once again Kai slipped under blow, Pyrrha had been teaching the Knight it was obvious from the Huntsman's fighting style which mimicked Pyrrha's own style.

Kai grinned, unfortunately for Jaune he knew exactly how Pyrrha fought and had a counter for nearly every move the Spartan had. Except spears through the shoulder he corrected himself.

Jaune swung again bringing his shield around to guard himself Kai shifted backward away from the strike but instantly ran at the Knight once the sword was clear. Jumping on to the shield Kai used it to launch himself into the air performing a swallow dive over the top of Jaune's head. Twisting in mid-air Kai turned and kicked out at the younger Huntsman who was turning around.

Hitting Jaune square in the chest causing the Knight to be thrown across the ring, as he landed Kai tucked and rolled to his feet. Turning he saw Jaune lying on the floor.

The Ninja wandered over and placed the tip of his sword to Jaune's neck.

"Very well, Mr Arc please leave the ring." Kai slid his sword back into its scabbard and helped Jaune up the younger Huntsman muttered a thank you before returning to his seat. Kai went to follow suit…

"Mister Gravett remain in the ring please, Mister Winchester enter the ring."

Cardin Winchester entered the ring swing the large mace he used with ease.

Kai drew both of his swords, Cardin was big he was as at least as tall as Kai and a lot more heavily built.

Cardin swung his mace; Kai dived to the side and rolled to his feet. Cardin swung sideways and Kai flipped backwards over the weapon. As he landed he raised his swords in an X formation as Cardin brought his mace down at his head. As the weapons met Kai pushed up against the mace locking Cardin's weapon in place. As he stood he came face to face to the younger Huntsman, "I've heard you've been sleeping with a filthy Faunus." He taunted, "You're a dirty traitor, and you're as bad as she is."

Kai began to grind his teeth; Cardin was not getting away with that.

Kai's Aura flared draping him in shadows, he shifted is body position throwing Cardin's weapon from the boy's hands.

Kai kicked down on Cardin's knee dropping him to a kneeling position, Kai threw his swords down Cardin had made his personal. Kicking Cardin in the chest so the boy landed on his back Kai stood over the school's bully his Aura manifesting itself as coiling shadows around him.

Kai knelt down straddling Cardin's chest pinning the younger boy's arms with his knees. Cardin looked up at the Ninja cloaked in shadows as the older boy bore down on in, Kai began to rain down punches on to Cardin.

As each punch landed Cardin's head bounced against the ground. Kai was furious, he could deal with people insulting him but he would not accept anyone insulting Blake.

Cardin lost consciousness but Kai didn't let up continuing to pummel the bullies' bloodied face.

Glynda Goodwitch watched as Cardin's Aura dropped to zero, she yelled at Kai to stop. The Ninja looked up his face plastered with rage, breathing heavily he stood up Cardin's blood dripping from his knuckles.

Blake ran into the ring ignoring the cries from her teammates who were telling her to stay away from him, as she entered the shadows writhing around the boy settled and as she approached they disappeared. Slowly she approached him and drew him into a hug. Kai looked at the students who sat outside. The ring they were terrified even Professor Goodwitch was unsure what to do, the remaining members of team CRDL ran into the ring and picked up their team leader.

"Get him to the infirmary now!" Professor Goodwitch yelled. "Mister Gravett go to Professor Ozpin's office immediately!"

Kai didn't move as he tried to contain his temper, he only began to move as Blake pulled on his arm.

Minutes later they were ushered into Professor Ozpin's empty office, Blake made to leave but was stopped by the headmaster standing in the door. "Miss Belladonna I think it would be a good idea if you stayed with Mister Gravett, you seem to have a relaxing effect on him."

Blake turned to see a shadowy outline surrounding her boyfriend what had Cardin done to cause this outburst? Kai was always so calm and collected.

As she sat down next to him she held his hand the effect was instantaneous the shadowy Aura dissipated, but she could still feel him shaking with anger.

Professor Ozpin sat down opposite the pair and looked at them across his desk they sat in an uncomfortable silence, the only sound was Kai's heavy breathing.

The headmaster leaned forward, "Kai I think it would be prudent that you explain what happened."

Kai looked up at the headmaster his face was blank; "He called Blake a filthy Faunus and me a traitor for being involved with her." The Ninja replied through gritted teeth.

Blake stared open mouthed as Kai explained how his actions were to defend her honour.

"By 'he' I'm assuming you mean Cardin Winchester."

Kai nodded in reply.

"And what is going on between you and Miss Belladonna here?"

"We're sort of in a relationship." Blake answered for Kai.

"I see…" The headmaster leaned back in his chair. "So your actions were due to you acting to defend your partner."

Another nod, Blake squeezed the older boy's hand.

"Due to the remarks you claim Mister Winchester made and judging by his behaviour to other Faunus students I wouldn't be surprised if this true I understand why you acted the way you did. However I do not condone your actions so I'm putting you in detention for a month."

Kai looked up, "Professor…"

"You're lucky I'm not expelling you…"

The Ninja looked back down at the table, "Thank you," he managed to mumble.

"So now that's been sorted I would like to talk to you about this." Professor Ozpin projected an image on to his desk.

Blake and Kai looked at the image; it was Kai standing over Cardin with his shadowy Aura writhing around him.

"This image shows the manifestation of your Aura, your Semblance what I want to know is what you use it for." The headmaster leaned in.

"Shadow walking." Kai's responded.

"Care to expand?"

"I use my Aura to blur my outline allowing a brief period of time where I can move undetected, so I appear to dissipate and reappear." Kai paused looking up at the headmaster. "With the help of my previous combat trainer I found a method of extending its affects."

"The Dust and your Jacket." Blake blurted out causing Professor Ozpin to raise an eyebrow.

"And where is said 'Jacket' now?"

"In my locker." Kai replied he was beginning to calm down now, his voice returning to its normal tone.

"Would you be willing to demonstrate?" It was evident that there was only one correct answer.

Fortunately Kai chose correctly, "Yeah not a problem."

Ten minutes later Kai stood in the training hall, wearing his jacket with the hood pulled over his face.

Blake sat on a bench to the side of the hall while Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch stood in front on him.

"In your own time." The headmaster stated.

Kai's outline blurred and then he dissipated and reappeared behind his professors without a sound.

"Behind you," he whispered inches away from the back of Glynda's neck causing her to spin around to be met with the hooded figure.

If either of them were surprised by this they hid it well, Kai once again flickered out of sight a reappeared where he had started.

"So that is what you can do with your Aura alone?" Professor Ozpin asked.

Kai nodded quickly.

"And the extended affects?"

Kai withdrew one of the black spheres and threw it at the ground, the characteristic plume of black Dust enveloped him and he disappeared. Kai moved quickly to the side and sat down next to Blake content to let his professors look for him.

Blake knew he was there at first it was just a feeling like a nagging in the back of her head, but she was certain after the boy kissed her on the cheek.

"How long are you going to leave them standing there?"

"I don't know I was tempted to go and get some food." Kai's disembodied voice replied.

"And leave me her with these two." Blake whispered.

"Which is why I'm still here." The older boy chuckled.

"So how long do these extended effects last for?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Blake felt the bench she was sitting on shift as Kai got up, "Indefinitely." Kai's disembodied voice replied from across the hall."

"So where are you now?"

"Right in front of your eyes." Kai appeared directly in front of the Huntress causing her to step backwards out of shock. Even Professor Ozpin lost his stoic demeanour.

Quickly recovering the Professor stared at him, "So why aren't you using this ability during combat lessons?" the Huntress asked.

Kai grinned, "If everyone knew I could do this I would lose the advantage, also when I can just disappear…" At which point he did, "And then reappear directly behind them with a sword against their neck, I wouldn't turn around Professor Goodwitch it's a very sharp sword." Kai reappeared in front of his professors again, "I have no reason to train, which I enjoy doing by the way so I try to avoid using it as much as possible."

"I see…" The headmaster paused. "If that is the case I want you to join the post-graduate team's training sessions on top of your current training so you can push yourself."

"Headmaster are you sure?" Professor Goodwitch queried.

"I am. If he doesn't meet your high standards you are welcome to stop him from attending."


	13. History

Fletcher was off doing something with Iris, Ashley was doing work in the library and Blake was reading.

Kai enjoyed reading but Blake would lose herself for hours in the pages of a book, so with nothing else to do he had changed into a pair of shorts and a black t-shirt that bore the Beacon emblem on the chest and headed to the gym.

As he entered he remembered he was allowed to use the post-grad facilities. A glass wall separated the two parts of the gym; Kai placed his scroll against the entry pad opening the door.

He entered unchallenged by the four older students who were talking among themselves on the other side of the room, Kai put on his headphones drowning out all the surrounding noise. Jumping up on to one of the free treadmills he began to run.

A few minutes into his run the treadmill next to him became occupied; Kai ignored whoever it was and kept running.

The person on the other treadmill had other ideas; Kai felt his headphones being pulled off his head. He turned across to the other treadmill without breaking a step across from him stood one of the post-grads; she was holding his headphones in one hand. Her white hair was tied up into a messy ponytail, she had a sleeve of tribal tattoos up her right arm.

"Can I help you?" Kai asked.

"As it so happens you can." She replied, "I was… well actually we were wondering." She motioned over to the three others across the room. "Why a first year has been allowed to use our equipment."

Kai stopped his treadmill and turned to face the girl, "Does it matter?"

"Hang on I'm the one asking questions here." The girl replied in a sing song voice.

"Professor Ozpin decided that I should train with the post-grad students on top of my current training."

"O right… you're the shadow guy." She made some weird wavy hand movements.

"Kai," he offered his hand. "You have me at a disadvantage you are?"

"Griffin of team Ghost." She replied shaking his hand.

"You know the word ghost has five letters." Kai smirked.

"The kid's a funny guy!" She called to the other post-grads. "And yes I know it has five letters mister genius, our official designation is team GHST."

"So you guys are the 'Ghosts'." Kai looked past the Griffin and over to her team members. There was a boy with long dreadlocks who looked like he was dealing with a headache and two girls who he assumed were twins as they looked identical except for their hair. Both of them had a small streak of colour amongst their raven black hair, one had lime green and the others was teal or cyan Kai couldn't tell.

"The one and only." The white haired girl replied. "We're Beacon's lead operative team."

"Which is a weird title for you to have since officially you have never been sent on a mission." Kai retorted.

Griffin grinned, "Okay smartarse you win this round." She threw Kai back his headphones, "Nice music choice by the way, it's not often you find someone with an appreciation for Punk music."

She turned and began to walk away but stopped, "O yeah a girl is trying to catch your attention." She added grinning over her shoulder.

Kai turned around to see Ruby pressed up against the glass door smiling at him. Turning to the door he pressed the exit button opening the door causing the small girl to fall in.

"O my God Blake wasn't lying." Ruby whispered as she stood up, the girl was acting like she currently stood on hallowed ground.

Ruby looked like she was about to burst, "Kai who's your friend?" Griffin asked walking over.

Ruby grabbed Kai's arm as Griffin approached, "That's Griffin from Team Ghost!" she fan-girled, "She's like so totally awesome." The smaller girl whispered

"Griffin meet Ruby Rose." Ruby's mouth dropped open as she was introduced to the Huntress.

"You know you can't invite mates in here." Griffin said stoically. Ruby jumped out of the room, causing Griffin to burst out laughing. "I'm shitting you…" she had to stop to breathe, "You can come in."

"Griffin stop messing with the first year." A gruff voice shouted.

"Yeah whatever Talfryn!" Griffin yelled giving the boy in the corner the middle finger.

"Should I go?" Ruby asked.

"Nah… Hang around for a bit." Griffin replied.

"Can I see your weapon?" Ruby squeaked.

"Yeah I don't see why not." Griffin replied as she pulled out her twin bladed revolvers.

"They're beautiful…" Ruby whispered.

"What's your weapon of choice?" Griffin asked as she put away her weapons.

Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose from behind her back, as the scythe unfolded Griffin raised an eyebrow.

"A scythe?"

"It's also a customisable high impact sniper rifle." Ruby added as she stroked her weapon.

"Oi Red! Did you say that's a sniper rifle?" The scruffy man Griffin had called Talfryn yelled from across the room.

"Err… Yeah…" Ruby responded as Talfryn walked over.

"Just ignore the smell…" Griffin whispered. She wasn't joking as the man approached an overwhelming stench enveloped the group.

"Let's have a look." Ruby looked the man up and down as she pulled Crescent Rose closer to her.

"How about you can see mine…" Talfryn pulled a camouflaged rectangular box off his back which unfolded into an eight foot long sniper rifle. In quite the contrast to the man the weapon was spotlessly clean.

At the chance to handle the impressive weapon Ruby handed over her own weapon as she received the rifle. Talfryn examined Crescent Rose as Ruby struggled to lift the massive sniper rifle.

"This is an impressive weapon." Talfryn admitted nodding his head as he looked down the sights. "Bolt-action or semi-auto?"

"Bolt-action." Ruby replied. Griffin's scroll buzzed, she moved away to check the message.

"Why?"

Ruby paused looking confused, "More accuracy and stopping power."

The man began to nod again impressed by the answer, "Fair play Red." He said handing back Crescent Rose, as Ruby relinquished the larger rifle.

"Anyway…" Griffin interrupted joining the group, "We need to go…"

"Eh what?" Talfryn turned to the white haired girl.

"Harmonia, Sabina, Goodwitch wants us." The twins walked over.

"Sober up quickly Talfryn or you're screwed." Griffin added shoving the man as team GHST walked out, leaving Kai and Ruby standing in the training hall.

"What's up with them?" Ruby asked.

"Who knows?" Kai replied jumping back on to the treadmill he had been on previously.

"So what are you going to do now?" Ruby skipped over to join Kai by the treadmill.

"Umm… Run…" Kai replied looking down at the treadmill.

"Oh okay." Ruby jumped up on to the treadmill next to Kai and started up the machine.

"Umm… Ruby are you going to change." Kai asked pointing at the girl's skirt.

"Why would I do that? I can run in a combat skirt" The girl replied as she ramped up the speed of the moving track. "Race you!" The small girl exclaimed.

Kai shook his head as he increased the speed of his own machine.

* * *

Blake sat on the window sill reading, she looked up as there was a knock on the door. She walked over to the door and opened it, Kai stood on the opposite side of the door smiling.

Pulling the boy into the room Blake kissed her boyfriend, she hadn't seen the boy since the meeting with the headmaster.

Pulling away from the kiss the grin on his face growing, "Nice to see you to." He said before Blake closed the door behind them.

This was the first time Kai had properly seen team RWBY's dorm he hadn't managed to get a brilliant look when he had come to take care of the girl when she was hung-over. Getting a good look at the precariously balanced bunk beds he was certain that the girls had broken a few laws of physics by building them.

Blake pulled Kai over to her bed and snuggled up to the boy as they lay down on her bed.

"How are you feeling?" Blake asked.

"Alright." Kai replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah why?" Kai asked as he stroked Blake's hair.

"It's just you know…"

"You're talking about me losing my cool with Cardin."

Blake nodded as she repositioned herself so her head rested on the Ninja's chest; she traced the ridges of scar tissue under his t-shirt with her finger.

"I really appreciate you defending me like that by the way."

"You're welcome." Kai kissed the top of the Faunus girl's head.

Blake entwined her legs with Kai's as she snuggled her head into the crook of the boy's neck and closed her eyes. The pair lay there in silence content in each other's company. Blake didn't notice as the older boy fell asleep beneath her as she closed her eyes and fell asleep herself.

As the pair slept Yang walked into the room, noticing the pair sleeping on Blake's bed a wicked smile spread across her face. Taking out her scroll she used it to take a photo of them before sending the picture on to everyone who knew the pair. Almost instantly Ruby quietly burst through the door and stood there with Yang giggling. From across the hall Nora dragged Ren in to team RWBY's room and joined the sisters.

"They're so adorable…" Nora added hugging herself.

"Why are we staring at them?" Ren asked before adding, "You know this is really creepy…"

"Sssshhhh… you'll wake them up." Ruby whispered.

"Hi guys what's going on?" Pyrrha asked as she walked in her view of the sleeping pair obscured by her friends.

"Sssshhhh…" Ruby hissed as she put her hand over Pyrrha's mouth.

As the smaller huntress moved the Spartan was given a full view of the Faunus girl draped over the Ninja.

"Oh…" Pyrrha went silent.

Kai began to wake up as he opened his eyes he saw the audience that had formed in the room. Whispering to not wake up his sleeping girlfriend he asked, "What's going on?"

There was a sudden mad rush to evacuate the room as they all realised they were busted; only Pyrrha stopped to look back silently before leaving.

Kai slowly eased the sleeping girl off of him and got up and followed the redheaded girl.

"Pyrrha!" The Spartan turned to face him. "What's going on?" He asked as he approached.

"Nothing." She turned and began to walk away again.

"Pyrrha I know you, something's up." He asked putting his hand on her shoulder.

Pyrrha brushed his hand off her shoulder and turned back to him. "You know me do you?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah come on we've been friends for nearly eight years." Kai answered.

"Just friends?"

Kai stepped away from the girl, "Pyrrha… Why now?" He groaned.

Pyrrha looked down at the ground.

"We tried Pyrrha and it didn't work out. We agreed to leave it and stay friends, what changed?"

"I don't know…"

Kai changed his tack, "Pyrrha your one of my best friends…"

He was cut short as Pyrrha quickly kissed him on the lips before stepping away blushing. "I had to do it." She added defensively, "Tell me that didn't mean anything to you."

"Please Pyrrha I'm with Blake."

He couldn't say no… That meant he still had feelings for her, didn't it? Pyrrha turned and walked away smiling leaving the older boy in the corridor.

* * *

Authors Note: Hey guys, in this chapter I added a little introduction to the team that is involved in my other story 'Ghosts' which runs in parallel chronologically with this story. The Ghosts with probably not appear in this story again but there will be mentions of them time and again. Also events that occur in this story will affect their story...

Anyway... You guys look after yourselves!


	14. When the Past Catches up

Much to both Blake and Weiss's annoyance Yang had convinced Kai to take her to a nightclub over the weekend; Blake didn't want to go but had decided to go as well. It wasn't that she didn't trust Kai and Yang but Blake wasn't comfortable leaving the Brawler to go drinking with her boyfriend unsupervised.

Ruby and Weiss had decided not to come along, Ruby had objected to being left behind but the younger girl would definitely not have been able to get in and Weiss wouldn't let their team leader out anyway.

So that was how Blake had found herself in the loud club with Yang, Kai had gone to the bar to get them drinks.

"This is awesome isn't it?" Yang yelled, Blake only just heard the blonde girl over the music.

Not replying Blake walked over to join Kai at the bar, the older boy was casually talking to a girl as the bartender prepared their drinks. Blake felt pang of jealousy as the woman started flirting with him.

Stepping in close she wrapped an arm around him bringing him in close before kissing him on the neck. The girl at the bar stared at her obviously annoyed by her presence, "Excuse me aren't you a little young to be here." She spat at the Faunus girl, "Run along now." She waved her hand dismissively at Blake before turning back to Kai.

"Actually this is my girlfriend and these," he nodded to the drinks on the bar, "Are our drinks."

Handing Blake her drink and picking up Yang's and his own he turned and walked over to a free booth leaving the girl at the bar in stunned silence.

"God there are some assholes around." Kai commented as they sat down, nodding in agreement Blake began to sip her drink. It tasted a lot better than what they had been drinking when she had celebrated Kai's recovery with his team.

Sitting down next to him she lay against him as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Well aren't you two cute having a little bevy boo together?" Yang teased as she jumped into the seat opposite. "Did you get what I ordered?" She asked turning to Kai.

"Strawberry Sunrise with no ice?"

"With?" Yang raised an eyebrow.

"A little umbrella…" Kai sighed.

"That's the one!" Yang exclaimed as Kai handed the blonde girl her drink.

"It was so embarrassing ordering that drink." Kai shook his head.

"Whatever," Yang dismissed the comment, "So what did you guys get?"

"It's beer with Tequila in it." Kai responded raising the bottle of liquid.

"Blackberry Margarita." Blake replied as she continued to sip her drink.

Yang sat there smiling at the pair as she drunk her own drink, as she finished she stood up.

"Come on lets hit the dance floor!"

Kai turned to Blake leaving the decision up to her, "We'll be with you in a bit," Blake replied.

"Okay see you out there," Yang gave the pair a salute before diving into the crowd of dancing people.

"I didn't think you liked this kind of music." Blake commented as another pop song began to blast out of the speakers.

"Yeah I don't pop music really isn't brilliant, but the band that's going to be on soon are really good." Kai replied.

"What was going on with that other girl at the bar?" Blake asked trying to act casual.

"I dunno, she just came up to me and started asking me about myself. When I mentioned I was training to be a Huntsman she became slightly flirtatious." Kai shrugged, "Doesn't matter anyway." He added kissing her on the head.

At that point the DJ announced that the live band was coming on to the stage.

"Come on let's get to the front!" Kai grabbed her arm and pulled her up from the table and across to the area in front of the stage where Yang was dancing.

As the band walked on stage it was obvious that they weren't going to be playing the type of music that had been on previously. As they began to play there was a rush of people as they attempted to get to the front.

Kai turned to face Blake, "Don't fall over." He warned as a mosh pit began to from.

Blake was suddenly crushed amongst numerous bodies many of whom were jumping around, she tried to stay close to Kai but managed to lose the boy in the sea of bodies.

A large man barrelled into her knocking her to the ground, she was being stood on unable to escape the wall of legs and unable to stand she began to panic.

A hand shot down towards her grabbing her arm dragging her out of the mosh pit and into a quieter part of the dance floor.

"Blake are you ok?" Blinking she looked up to see Kai staring back at her.

"Yeah I'm fine." Blake tried to slow her breathing in an attempt to calm her nerves.

Yang joined them, "You guys ok?"

"Yeah Blake managed to get dragged under." Kai responded, "Do you mind if I jump back in?" He asked turning back to Blake.

"Don't let me stop you," Blake began but before she had finished the Huntsman had literally jumped back in and was gone in the mass of bodies.

"You know your boyfriend is either as hard as nails or crazy." Yang commented as she and Blake returned to the bar.

Blake looked back to the stage and watched as Kai was lifted above the crowd and he crowd surfed across the dance floor.

"I'm going to go with crazy." Yang concluded as they reached the bar.

The girls leaned up against the bar watching the people in the club, though she had her doubts about going out but she was beginning to enjoy herself. She recognised some of the songs the band was covering from music Kai listened to.

Yang ordered them some more drinks, as Blake drank she became certain that the ground was tipping slightly.

"Whoa there." Yang laughed as she righted the Faunus girl who had begun to slide off the bar. "Maybe we should grab a table…"

Yang helped Blake across to a vacant table and the girls sat down and began to talk about school and their friends.

Back at the stage Kai was jumping around like everyone else in the mosh pit until two lines formed down the centre of the crowd and a gap formed. The split grew bigger and bigger until there was a large section of clear floor, there was a sudden rush in towards the gap the two large groups crashed together in the centre.

Blake watched in horror as Kai ran forward and jumped over the central group, he was caught in mid-air and held aloft by the crowd, who once again crowd surfed him to the back of the dance floor.

Kai casually hopped off and walked over to join Blake and Yang, "I didn't know you were into moshing." Yang stated.

"What can I tell you? I'm a barrel of surprises." He replied smiling as he sat down with them.

"Is that what normally happens?" Blake asked.

"Not really… most of the time they play club music here, but every so often they have a Punk rock night and it gets fun…"

"I never thought of you as someone who was into Punk music…" Yang said.

"Why not?"

"Well you're dating Blake who's really quiet… It just doesn't fit the image." Yang explained.

"Right…" Kai responded, "So who's up for another?" He asked pointing to the bar.

"If you're buying, then yes definitely!" Yang exclaimed as she got up and walked to the bar with Kai.

Happy to wait for the two of them Blake sat quietly at the table, her peace was soon disturbed when she heard an all too familiar voice.

"Having fun?" The husky voice sent shivers down her spine.

Blake said nothing as the tall masked Faunus sat opposite her, "Do you know how hard it was to track you down?"

Intimidated by her former partner in crime Blake continued to stare silently at him.

"You never should have run. You know that don't you…" A bitter edge entered his voice as he threatened her. "No one screws me over and gets away with it…" Blake quickly glanced over to the bar, if she could just get Yang's or Kai's attention…

Adam slid closer to her, "Do you remember why you started wearing that bow? Those people who used to spit on you as you walked past? The shopkeepers who would turn you away?"

Blake didn't look at him but he grabbed her chin forcing her to face him, "Your 'friends'." Adam spat the words as he nodded to the bar, "Are no different, they wouldn't save you over one of their own."

"You're wrong." Blake stared back into the slits of the mask that he wore to obscure his face.

"Trust me I'm not wrong about this. But back to the matter at hand, I'm faced with a dilemma. There is an ex-member of the White Fang who knows the location of all our hideouts and who could identify many of our high ranking leaders."

"I would never…" Blake began.

"Betray us?" Adam interrupted, "Though you may not have, you are still a loose end. And loose ends need to be either patched up or removed completely." Blake felt the cold steel of a knife being pushed against her side.

"Excuse me I think you're making the lady uncomfortable." Blake looked up at the sound of Kai's voice.

Kai stood there staring at Blake and the masked man; initially he had thought Adam was just some guy hitting on her but Blake's body language made it obvious there was something more serious going on.

"This doesn't concern you, boy." Adam hissed, shifting slightly he accidently revealed the red bladed knife he had held against Blake.

Without thinking Kai dived across the table the hidden blade extending from the sleeve of his jacket, landing heavily on the male Faunus he held it to Adam's neck catching the normally vigilant man by surprise.

"Do you know how important the jugular vein is?" Kai asked politely, Adam grunted an indignant affirmation of his understanding.

"Did you also know that there is no way to repair it?" Another grunt of understanding was elicited from the Faunus.

"Then unless you want all your blood to be on the floor in four minutes you should definitely get that knife away from my girlfriend." Kai stared intently at the man; Blake felt the pressure on her side ease as Adam withdrew the blade. She stood up and moved away from the table joining Yang who was holding a tray of drinks.

"Drop it." The knife fell to the floor.

"You're threatening the wrong person my friend." Adam stated as he fired the rifle that acted as the sheath for his sword. The hilt of the blade slammed into Kai's chest launching him into the nearby music speaker.

The piece of equipment was ruined under impact, the feedback from the speaker played through the rest of the sound system cutting out the music. The club descended into silence as Adam re-sheathed his sword and Kai pulled himself out of the wreckage.

Kai drew his own swords, they stared eachother down before diving at one and other. Their swords clashed and the crowd erupted as they tried to avoid the pair who were barrelling around the room their passage punctuated by their swords hitting eachother.

Kai was disappearing and reappearing around Adam, the older warrior was unfazed by the disappearing boy. His combat experience showing through as he deflected the strikes, however Adam was unable to return with his own strikes as he was pushed back under the barrage of attacks.

Kai struck high and then low catching the Faunus's leg opening up a vicious cut in his leg. Pressing the advantage Kai forced forward striking again and again. Adam jumped out of the way backing away, the sound of police sirens echoed around the building.

"This is not over…" Adam turned and ran out of the club.

Kai began to follow but was met with a wall of police pointing guns at his chest.

"Drop the weapons!" One of them shouted.

Kai slowly lowered his weapons the red laser sights danced across his chest, placing the swords gently on the floor the Ninja stood back up raising his hands above his head.

Yang and Blake ran across to the lead officer, "He's a Beacon student!" Yang exclaimed "That other guy tried to stab Blake, Kai was defending her!"

"Get his student card and show it to me." The officer ordered. Yang slowly walked over to Kai who still held his hands in the air.

"Please tell me you have your card." Yang whispered.

"Back pocket." Kai answered, Yang reached around and put her hand into Kai's back trouser pocket.

"It's not there…" She hissed.

"Other pocket." Kai sighed, Yang removed the card from his other pocket as she did she pinched is bum.

Kai glared at her, "What?" She smirked as she sauntered back to the officer waving the card at him.

The officer briefly looked at the card before lowering his gun; the red dots that bussed around Kai's chest gradually disappeared as the other guns lowered.

Kai's hands dropped to his sides and he slowly picked up his swords before re-sheathing them, as he wandered over to join Blake and Yang the officer demanded that they give witness reports of the incident.

Kai was released from police custody a few hours later, he hadn't been arrested but he had been held in the police station to give a statement. Blake had also been required to issue a statement of the events; but had avoided mentioning her past with Adam to cover her own back. If the police found out her actual background she would probably be sitting in one of those cells herself.

Kai walked her back to her dorm and made an attempt of asking her about what had happened but she remained very cagey about it. Saying goodnight he left her trusting that she would tell him about it later.


	15. Old Fires

"I can't believe that happened to you!" Iris screamed after Kai finished explain his fight with Adam the next day.

"So some random guy comes up to Blake and threatens to stab her?" Fletcher asked.

"Yeah it's really weird isn't it?" Kai replied looking around at his team.

"Sounds like he was just crazy to me." Ashley added, "Blake was probably just unlucky to be there."

"Yeah you're probably right." Kai responded lying back on his bed. "Blake just seemed really shaken up…"

"Anyway you should probably go and check on her." Iris concluded.

* * *

That had been several weeks previously but try as he might Blake hadn't wanted to talk to him about what had happened. The Faunus girl had been making herself scarce recently, well more than usual.

Kai knocked on team RWBY's door, Yang answered the door.

"O hi Kai come on in." She said moving out of the way to let him, stepping in Kai looked around no one else was there.

"Sooo where is everyone?" Kai asked turning to Yang as she closed the door behind him.

"I dunno…" Yang replied wandering over to him with her hands behind her back.

Kai rubbed the back of his neck nervously, the blonde girl was getting uncomfortably close.

"Has Blake said anything more about what happened?" Kai asked siting down on Blake's bed.

"Nope." Yang lied sliding in next to him. Blake had explained about Adam to her teammates but had asked them not to tell anyone else.

"Okay…" Kai shifted uncomfortably, "Do you know when Blake will be back?"

"She said something about going to library." Yang shrugged.

"So you do know where she is?" Kai asked confused.

"Well I guess so, yeah…" Yang replied.

Kai got up moving quickly away from the girl, "I'm going to go look for Blake…"

He walked out of the room quickly leaving Yang sitting on Blake's bed by herself.

* * *

Blake sat holed up in the library surrounded by books, the whisper of turning pages comforted her as she sat in the silent room. Adam sudden appearance was very disturbing she had done all she possibly could to cover her tracks but still he managed to find her. The question that remained unanswered was whether he was out for revenge for her abandoning him or if the White Fang were targeting her.

Pushing these thoughts out of her head Blake dived back into her favourite book.

"I keep telling you that book will give you too many weird ideas about what I can actually do." Kai's voice echoed down the rows of books.

Blake quickly snapped the pages of 'Ninjas of Love' together and attempted to hide it in the pile of books beside her, in her hurry she sent the tower of pages tumbling to the ground.

"Too late for that." Kai joked as he bent down to help her collect the scattered books.

"Maybe I should try some of the techniques from it…" Blake whispered in his ear.

Kai recoiled blinking, "Who are you and what have you done with Blake?"

A look of confusion flashed across the Faunus's face.

"My girlfriend has never been so forward." Kai explained the joke thinly veiled the concern in his voice. "Are you feeling alright Blake?" He placed his hand against her forehead as if to check her temperature.

"When will stop making bad jokes?" She asked a smile pricking at the edges of her lips, how he did it she didn't know but when he was around everything seemed just that little better.

"Maybe when someone actually appreciates my unique blend of humour." This managed to get a small giggle from Blake, which was a mistake on her behalf because it would only encourage him.

"In all seriousness though…" Kai's voice dropped the lighter tone it had carried. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." She sighed realising the small talk was an attempt to get her to talk about Adam.

"Blake…" Kai grabbed her hand and held it between his, "Don't lie to me… You've faced more life threatening situations than a knife to your side and come out the other side unshaken."

Blake didn't reply she just stared back into his eyes.

"There is something going on that you're not telling me. I'm not going to force you to tell me but I want to help." Kai squeezed her hand gently.

Blake wanted to tell him everything but she feared the older boy would reject her if she told him the truth. The silence between them dragged on, Kai let her hand go and got up.

"My door is always open for you, remember that. I'll leave you to your reading." Kai gestured to the books that surrounded her. Turning his back to her he began to walk away, Blake watched him disappear into the maze of shelves.

Outside the door of the library Kai leant against the opposite wall, slowly he slid down the wall until he was sat on the cold floor holding his head in his hands.

'What's going on?' the question echoed around his head, Blake had always been very private but he was worried about her she always seemed able to deal with whatever was bother her but this time something was different…

"Kai?" Pyrrha stood over the sitting boy, "What are you doing down there?"

"Enjoying the comfy floor." He replied sarcastically.

"Problems?" Pyrrha sat down next to him and leaned against the wall.

"Something like that…"

"Want to talk about it?" Pyrrha asked.

"If there was something to talk about…"

Pyrrha began to nod with understanding. "Blake is a private person give her some time…"

"Yeah maybe you're right…" Kai sighed.

Pyrrha stood up, "Come on," she pulled at his arm dragging him to his feet and leading him down the corridor.

"Ummm… Pyrrha where are we going?" Kai asked hesitantly.

"We're going to the training hall." She replied.

"Okay let me rephrase that, why are we going to the training hall?"

Pyrrha stopped dragging him and turned to face him, "You always told me that if I had problems that there was a punch bag somewhere that would listen to them."

"And what pearls of wisdom they were." Kai grinned as they both continued to walk towards the training hall. "I knew I had managed to teach you something." Kai laughed as he gently punched Pyrrha on the arm.

* * *

The chain that held the punch bag in place rattled loudly, Kai shifted position sending another combination of punches into the stuffed leather bag. Pyrrha stood to the side watching, the rhythmic thump of punches reminding her of the years of training she and Kai had gone through together.

A sharp snap followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground roused her from her reminiscing. The punch bag that had previously been securely chained to a crossbeam now lay on the ground, the chain that had held it up lay on the floor like a metallic tail.

"Better?" She asked, Kai looked up at her grinning.

"A little bit…"

The training partners sat down together, "So you ready to talk about what's bothering you?" Pyrrha asked.

"You're not going to let this go are you?" Kai replied.

"Nope."

"Fine, there is something seriously wrong with Blake."

"What do you mean?"

"She's really shaken up about something and I don't know what it is. Which is really frustrating because unless she tells me I can't help her." Kai looked down dejectedly.

"Come on." Pyrrha stood up, "Reckon you can dance and talk?"

Pyrrha stepped away raising her hands into a fighting guard, grinning Kai stood raising his own guard.

"Alright you're on so long as you're gentle and you don't put me out of combat again." Kai joked.

A hurt look passed across Pyrrha's face, "I'm joking!" Kai backpedalled quickly.

"That's coming from the person who won the Gauntlet with that injury…" She retorted throwing a few light punches towards him.

"What you didn't win?" Kai blocked and countered aiming a low kick at her leg.

"No, I never saw that trophy…" Pyrrha checked the kick with her leg and pushed her offense.

"Me neither…" Kai replied, retreating to give himself the room.

"Wait so neither of us ever found out who won." Pyrrha ducked under a roundhouse kick that was aimed at her head, twisting she spun to perform a leg sweep. Kai flipped over the attack landing facing the Spartan.

"Nope I just assumed you had won." Kai replied as they circled eachother, "I guess we should make up for it then."

"Here and now?"

"Why not?" Kai leaped forward throwing a powerful diving punch.

Pyrrha rolled out of the way coming to her feet as Kai spun into a reverse kick.

"Bring it on." Pyrrha blocked the kick, repositioned and threw her own kick at Kai's chest aiming to knock the older boy off his feet.

In hind sight that turned out to be a bad idea, Kai slipped the attack and caught her leg. Pyrrha felt weightless as he swept her standing leg and she began to fall to the ground.

Landing heavily she rolled to the side to stop Kai from pinning her. She got to her feet winded slightly.

"Give up?" Kai joked.

In answer Pyrrha redoubled her efforts, raining strikes down on him. His hands moved quickly blocking nearly all of the strikes a few snuck in but left nothing other than superficial impacts.

"Good, that's how you're meant to fight."

The vague comment reminded Pyrrha of the training sessions she had shared with the Ninja; he had always made those sorts of comments. He had wanted her to get better, to become more of a challenge. So he had helped her train so she would improve which would in turn help him.

Her reminiscing was interrupted as Kai tagged her on the forehead knocking her head back slightly.

"Wake up." He laughed as he forced her to take a more defensive strategy; he shifted in close sneaking in through her guard and catching her in the ribs with an uppercut.

The impact hurt but Pyrrha knew he was holding back so he didn't seriously hurt her, which she had always found more annoying than when he hit her as hard as he could by accident.

Pyrrha grabbed Kai's arm, snaked her other arm around his back and threw him over her hip. As he fell Kai grabbed the front of Pyrrha's chest plate pulling the red haired girl to the ground with him.

Landing the pair rolled across the ground, coming to a halt Kai moved to pin the Spartan. They had landed with Pyrrha on her back and he was knelt between her legs. The pair grappled, Pyrrha bucking and struggling in an attempt to move the older boy out of his better position. Kicking away she gave herself a little distance, pulling her right leg up she used it to kick out at his knee. Forcing the joint back she kicked her other leg into his side forcing him off her and on to his own back.

Pyrrha rolled towards him giving him no room to escape, straddling his waist she managed to pin Kai's body but was unable to gain control of his arms which continued to impact on her ribs. Absorbing the blows she grabbed the limbs and pinned them as well to the ground above his head.

Lying there breathing heavily underneath her Kai was unable to fight back but she couldn't attack without releasing his arms which would be a mistake. So they remained unmoving in the empty silence staring at eachother.

"You've got better." Kai laughed.

"Or are you just a bit rusty?" Pyrrha asked.

"Me? Never…" Kai pushed off the ground with his legs launching Pyrrha over his head.

Rolling forward Pyrrha stood turning to face him as he flipped to his feet.

"I think there's a reason neither of us won the tournament…" Kai stated.

"Why's that?"

"Because you can't beat me and I can't beat you." Kai shrugged, "It's that simple really."

"Maybe it is." Pyrrha replied walking over to him.

Before Kai could respond Pyrrha head-butted him knocking his head back. "Don't let your guard down." Pyrrha grinned as Kai turned back to face her, a large grin plastered across his face.

"Cheap shot!"

"It's a learnt behaviour…" Pyrrha replied.

"Yeah learnt from the best…" The Ninja laughed.

"I don't think you can claim that anymore." Pyrrha whispered in his ear before kissing him on the cheek and walking away from him.

Kai stood alone in the training hall, Pyrrha had stopped her advances for a while. Why had she started again?

* * *

Authors Note: Hey guys, just thought I'd give you an update about where I actually am with the story. Currently I'm writing chapter 20 of this story because I got way ahead of myself I'm not releasing all the chapters right away because I'm going back and reworking them. Hope your enjoying the story, as always if you have any questions or comments leave a review or PM me. Anyway look after yourselves and I'll see you around.


	16. Acceptance

Blake returned to her dorm Ruby sat on her bunk with her headphones on, Blake recognised the tune as the music leaked from the headphones.

'Red like Roses' had come out three days ago and the younger girl had been playing the song on a loop for pretty much all the time since. As she mouthed the words along with the song Ruby looked up to find Blake staring at her. Blushing she turned the music off and hug her headphones around her neck.

"Sup?" she asked.

"Kai…" Blake explained as she sat on her own bed.

Ruby practically wriggled with excitement; sure she wasn't happy Blake was upset but she had never talked to someone about relationship problems, so all this was new to her.

"What happened?" Ruby asked sympathetically.

"He came to find me to talk…"

"About Adam?" Ruby asked, Blake had explained to her teammates about her former partner and what he had said to her.

Blake nodded silently as Ruby came across and pulled her into a hug. "Maybe you should talk to him."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why? You think he'll not want to associate with you because of your past."

"Yeah…" Blake sighed as Ruby squeezed her tighter.

"He really cares about you so it's not going to be worse than when Weiss found out is it?" Ruby rationalised.

Pausing Blake looked up at the younger girl, "I never thought about it like that…"

"Maybe you should open up to him a bit more and talk to him." Ruby stood up smiling.

"Maybe I should…" and with that she stood up and walked out of the room.

* * *

Kai sat in the cafeteria with a coffee across the table sat Fletcher with his own, "Blake still not talking to you?" Fletcher asked as he took a sip of his drink

"Sort of, she won't talk about what's got her all shaken up."

"Probably cause there's nothing to talk about."

"Maybe…"

"Don't worry about it mate it's probably nothing," Fletcher patted him on the back. "It looks like you're going to get a chance to talk to her anyway." He added nodding to the entrance of the hall.

Blake was standing in the doorway looking around, Kai waved to attract her attention after which she walked over.

"We need to talk." She said as she sat down.

"Told you so!" Fletcher exclaimed pointing at Kai and laughing, the Woodsman stopped very quickly after receiving a dirty look from Blake.

"Alright geez someone needs to lighten up." He joked, Blake's face remained impassive.

"Okay… I'm going to leave you guys to it…" Fletcher got up slowly, "See you later mate." He nodded towards Kai, "See ya chuckles." He added waving to Blake before turning and walking away.

"Is he always such an ass?" Blake asked turning to Kai.

"Yep, that's kind of why I like him. He can take as much crap as he gives out which is rare." Kai chuckled. "Anyway I'm guessing you're not just here to scare my best friend and comment on the company I keep."

"No…"

"So what's up?"

"I think it would be better if we went somewhere a bit more private…" Blake pulled him to his feet; Kai grabbed his drink from the table as he was once again dragged away.

'Seriously what is it with people dragging me everywhere?' He thought to himself, "So where are we going? Your room?"

"No Ruby is in there and your room is no use either because we're not guaranteed any privacy." Blake replied.

The response left Kai blinking, what was she planning on doing?

Kai felt some relieve and a little disappointment as they continued past the shower block only to stop outside an empty classroom. Blake peered in checking it was really empty before pushing open the door and pulling him inside.

"Blake what's with all the secrecy?"

"There some stuff I need to tell you, it will probably take a while you might want to sit down."

Sitting in the aisle seat of the front row Kai looked up at the Faunus girl who stood in front of him. Blake rubbed the back of her neck before wrapping both arms around herself. She was obviously nervous but Kai didn't say anything fearing that she would clam back up.

Blake inhaled deeply, "I was a member of the White Fang…"

Kai blinked he had no idea how to respond to what she had just revealed.

Before he could say anything Blake continued, "I joined when it was a peaceful organisation; I was at all the peace rallies and protests. But after the leadership changed my skills were put to other uses…"

Blake paused waiting for the older boy's reaction, but Kai was waiting for him to give him the full story before he said anything.

Staring at his stoic face she continued, "The man at the club, Adam, he was my-well we were partners…" She explained before quickly adding "B-but not like together! Like how you and Fletcher or Yang and I are partners."

Blake began to pace around the front of the class room, "And when I left the White Fang I may have abandoned him in a pretty dire situation."

Kai stood and paused, "So this guy has bone to pick with you that's what you're telling me is it?" Kai asked.

"Pretty much." Blake confirmed.

Kai walked over to the front desk, "So this Adam guy is he likely give up?" He asked leaning against the desk.

"Well no probably not…" Blake answered; the conversation was not going how she had expected it to. In fact she was sure Kai was just going to walk out without saying anything when he had stood.

"So he'll be back."

"Without a doubt."

"Does the rest of your team know?" Kai asked looking up at her.

"They do…" She whispered her head dropping.

Kai stood and walked over to her drawing her in close he hugged her, "Why wouldn't you tell me this?"

"I-I thought…" Blake stuttered as she began to sob quietly.

"Thought what?" He asked.

"I thought because of my history…"

Kat squeezed her gently, "It's in the past Blake, and the only important thing is making sure this Adam guy can't exact whatever revenge he's planning."

Blake nuzzled against his chest she continued to cry with both relief and fear into his chest, he stroked her hair the gentle motion comforting her.

"Come on; let's go before someone finds us." Kai guided her out of the classroom; Blake kept both of her arms wrapped tightly around him fearing he would suddenly disappear.

* * *

Ruby sat awake her music blasting through her headphones in an attempt to stay awake. She was waiting for Blake to return that evening, Blake not showing up was either a really good sign or terribly bad.

"Ruby will you please go to sleep…" Yang moaned from across the room.

The younger huntress pulled off the headphones covering her ears, "I need to stay up to make sure Blake is alright… Ouch…" Ruby recoiled from the pillow that was thrown at her by Yang.

"Its 3 am go to sleep…" Weiss growled, "There is nothing we can do now so just go to bed."

"But Blake might be in trouble…"

"She's a big girl she can look after herself." Weiss snapped from the bunk below.

"Maybe you're right…" Ruby sighed as she lay down.

"Don't worry she'll be fine." Yang added as Ruby began to snore.

* * *

A few corridors over Blake lay awake tucked up against Kai, his body radiating out a comfortable heat. He had fallen asleep about an hour ago after his teammates had complained about them being up so late.

He had his back to her but when she draped her arm over him he rolled over onto his back which allowed her shift so her head lay against his chest.

Lying against the Huntsman's chest she listened to the rhythmic beat of his heart while she traced the criss-cross patchwork of scars that marred his skin

She felt her eyelids droop as she slowly drifted off, across the room a shadow flickered from Ashley and Iris's side of the room to Kai and Fletcher's…


	17. Causing Problems

"Blake!" Ruby screamed as she dived onto the Faunus girl giving her a big hug. Blake had come straight to her first lesson from Kai's dorm, "Why didn't you come back last night? Where were you? Did you talk to Kai? How did it go?" "The answer to the first two questions is, I was at Kai's, the third is yes and number four is…" "I would say it went well." Yang interrupted. "How do you know?" Ruby asked. Yang stared at her younger sister, "Seriously?" "What?" Ruby looked really confused. Yang began to talk very slowly, "If her talk with Kai had gone badly, do you think she would have stayed the night with him?" "Oh right!" Ruby exclaimed, "So where is he?" She asked looking around before whispering, "Is he invisible again?" "No he's behind you." Blake replied. Ruby quickly turned around, there was no one there. "Try again." Ruby whipped around to find Kai standing next to Blake. "What? B-but h-how?" Ruby stuttered causing Yang to burst out laughing. "Stop doing that! It's not funny." Ruby stamped her feet. "Sorry Ruby." Kai laughed. Weiss took this moment to remind them that they had a class that was starting. Yang continued to poke fun at her younger sister as they entered the classroom; Blake lightly kissed Kai on the lips before joining her team leaving Kai to find his own team. That evening there was a knock at the door of team RWBY's door, Blake looked up from her reading as Weiss opened the door. Kai stood outside the room, "Oh, hi Weiss." He chirped. "What do you want?" Weiss replied coldly. "I kind of have a problem." Kai replied scratching the back of his neck. Weiss looked over her shoulder to Blake, "Your boyfriend has a problem." She told her before walking back to her desk to work. Blake wandered over to the door, "What's the problem?" She asked. "Aside from the fact your friend doesn't like me." He joked which caused Weiss to roll her eyes. "Aside from that." Blake replied smirking. "I need a place to sleep tonight." Kai stated bluntly. "Why?" "Well it turns out that Fletcher and Iris are an item and therefore get the room to themselves tonight." "So they kicked you out…" Blake finished for him. "No actually, it turns out that Ashley was in on this as well and so to get me out she may or may not have stolen my scroll and key and I may or may not have chased her around campus three times before she hid in the girls changing room." Kai explained leaning against the doorframe. "I considered sleeping in a cupboard somewhere until I remembered I have a lovely girlfriend who has a really comfy bed just down the hall, so here I am." He concluded grinning back at Blake. "Let him in Blake." Yang called from her bed. "Come in." Blake said standing aside to let him in. "So to what do we owe this pleasure?" Yang asked jumping down from her bed. "Kai is sleeping here tonight." Blake replied. "Is he now? I don't know what happened to you Blake." Yang shook her head, "You used to be so sweet and innocent but now you're bring boys home and getting them to stay the night." "Very funny Yang." Kai replied sarcastically as he and Blake sat down together on the Faunus girl's bed. Weiss got up from her work and strode over to them, "If you're staying here tonight there are a few ground rules." "Such as?" Kai asked. "You are to remain in Blake's bed all night…" Weiss began. "I wasn't intending on sleeping anywhere else." Kai interrupted. "Good, also no noise after lights out or any funny business." The stern glare that accompanied this rule threatened death upon those who broke it. "And for the sake of decency you need to wait outside while we change." Weiss held the door open indicating this was not up for debate. "Alright I'm going." Kai raised his hands defensively as he stood and walked out, Weiss closed the door behind him. When Blake was sure Kai was out of earshot she turned to face Weiss, "What's your problem with Kai?" "I don't have a problem with your boyfriend." Weiss snapped as she pulled on her night gown. "Then why are you always so grumpy when he's around? He's never done anything against you." Blake retorted. "She has a point Weiss." Yang added as she pulled on her shorts and tank top. "Every time you talk to the guy you're either really curt with him or you're shouting at him for doing something wrong." "Fine." Weiss crossed her arms, "There's something about him I don't like." "What's that?" Blake asked frowning as she pulled her own nightgown over her head. Weiss scratched the back of her head, "You've been spending a lot of time with him and not concentrating on your work." "That's all you're worried about?" Blake exclaimed, "I've completed every single piece of work we've had!" "But your grades are worse and that affects the whole team…" Weiss retorted. "Weiss, come on even you've got to admit that's kind of selfish, so what if we're not getting perfect grades. It's not like we're gonna fail." Ruby interjected. "It's not me being selfish; I'm concerned about the whole team!" Weiss yelled to no one in particular. "More like how it affects your own grades…" Yang muttered under her breath. "What was that?" Weiss turned on Yang, but before anything else was said there was another knock at the door. Kai peeked his head around the door, "Is everything ok?" He asked slowly, "All I can hear from outside is yelling." Everyone turned to face Weiss, "Nothing's wrong." She answered before turning and getting in her bed with her back to everyone else. Kai made no attempt to enter so Blake got up so she could talk to him outside. "I can go if there's a problem with me being here." He whispered. "You heard that?" Blake replied quietly. "It was hard not to." Kai laughed. "You're here now so you might as well stay." Blake added pulling him back into the room. Ruby and Yang had retreated to their top bunks while Weiss still lay with her back to them all. Blake crawled into her bed as Kai entered the bathroom to change. Returning in only a pair of long shorts Blake caught Yang staring at him, Blake felt a pang of jealousy as her friend and teammate checked out her boyfriend. Kai slid in next to her and she adjusted herself so she was nestled comfortably on her favourite spot on his chest. As she did this Yang's head popped over the edge, "No funny business." She whispered imitating Weiss and wagging her finger at the pair before disappearing back over the edge leaving a Cheshire cat grin behind. "And you say my teammates are weird." Kai whispered as they both shut their eyes and drifted off into slumber. AU: Sup guys not a lot to say this time so I thought I would tease the title of the next chapter: In the Shadows of the Past. Who's past though? That is the real question, anyway reviews as always are appreciated and PM me with any questions. Look after yourselves and I'll see you around! 


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